Hellfire - Book 1: Knocking on Hell's Gates
by dragonliege242
Summary: When Ichigo made his decision to leave Karakura Town 3 years after defeating Aizen, he hadn't expected to be dragged back into the supernatural world, which turned out to be much, much bigger than he could have imagined. And the one to pull him into it was...a Mahou Shoujo?
1. Prologue

Hello, and welcome to a new story!

To those who came here from Dragonberry Chronicles, you will know that that story has been abandoned, and this one has taken its place.

If you were a fan of Dragonberry Chronicles, I'm sorry, but please enjoy this new story which I hope will be better.

* * *

On with the story!

Sunlight crept in through the window on the 3rd floor of a certain modern mansion in Japan, entering a large bedroom and shining directly onto the face of a man with orange hair and a tall and muscular build, sleeping under the covers of a king-sized 4-poster bed.

The moment the rays of the largest celestial object in the solar system hit his eyelids, the already present scowl on the man's sleeping face deepened, and his consciousness slowly rose from slumber.

His eyelids fluttered open, revealing his brown orbs, and he immediately sat up…or at least tried to.

Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to muster the strength to sit up properly, simply flopped back down onto the bed.

Weird, he had never been this sluggish in the morning before. His old man's unorthodox methods of waking him up made sure that he could awaken from his sleep and retaliate in an instant.

He craned his head to look around the room.

This…was definitely not his bedroom in the apartment he had rented in Kyoto. For one thing, this room was larger than the entire apartment.

Where the hell was he? Why was he sleeping here? What had he been doing before he fell asleep.

Everything was so hazy.

*CREAK*

"Oh, finally awake, I see!"

He turned his head when he heard the door of the room open, and a cheery female voice calling out to him from the doorway.

A beautiful girl with black hair tied into twintails, blue eyes and a large bosom despite her childish body stood there, smiling radiantly at him.

However, his attention was drawn towards her clothes.

There was no other way to put it. She was dressed in the clothes of a magical girl, not unlike the one his little sister used to watch when she was younger. She even had a magical wand to go with her outlandish outfit.

He stared at her for a moment before his mind clicked, and he remembered everything.

Including why he was feeling like crap at the moment.

"Right, _not a human_ anymore." He muttered to himself.

"Something wrong?" The girl asked as she came closer to examine him, her expression becoming slightly more worried.

"No, it's nothing. Just getting used to my new body."

"Hm! Okay, but get up soon! I still need to show you the ropes! Oh, but before that…"

The girl extended her hand towards him with a bright smile.

"Welcome to the family, Berry-tan!"

He grimaced, but reached out with his own, larger and more calloused hand to grasp hers and shake it firmly.

"Thanks, but could you please not call me that, Serafall-san?"

"No no no! Not Serafall-san! Call me Levia-tan! Or just Serafall! Oo, how about Sera-chan!"

"…I think I'll stick with Serafall." He answered as he felt a small migraine coming.

That was the beginning of the new life of Kurosaki Ichigo, former human, former Substitute Shinigami, newly Reincarnated Devil and the new Queen of Serafall Leviathan, one of the Four Maous of the Underworld, the rulers of Devils and residents of Hell.

He got the feeling that this new life would be just as interesting as his old one.

* * *

Yeah, it's really short, but I think it's enough for you readers to get the idea.

So, how is this story different from Dragonberry Chronicles?

Well, first, Ichigo no longer takes Issei's place, obviously. Instead, he has been reincarnated as Serafall's Queen. The circumstances behind this will be revealed eventually.

Second, he will not have Boosted Gear, which will remain with Issei. Instead, he will have a different power, not a Sacred Gear, and not his Shinigami, Hollow or Quincy powers either.

Third, the power levels are vastly different than they were in Dragonberry Chronicles. The lower ranks remain pretty much the same, but the power of the strongest Devils, especially the Maous, will be much higher than they were in Dragonberry Chronicles. All four of them will have power equivalent to or greater than Yamamoto in his prime. Also, Gods will also be much stronger, and head Gods will all almost certainly be stronger than Yamamoto. Just how much stronger will be revealed later on in the story. Which basically means that the Bleach characters no longer rule the high ranks.

Adding onto this, Serafall's and Falbium's, and maybe Grayfia's powers will be much greater than they were in canon. Basically, all of the Maous will be Super Devils, and possess true forms and full power forms that are drastically different from the usual appearances they use.

Fourth, it isn't stated in this prologue, but this story takes place years before DxD canon. Right now, Rias, Sona, and most of the main DxD characters have yet to be born.

Fifth, Soul Society is unaware of the existence of the other supernatural Factions of the world. This makes sense, since they are very obviously out of touch with the real world.

Sixth, the Bleach universe is unlikely to play a major part in this. I would like to focus more on the DxD side of things. However, the Wandereich will still make an appearance, though it might not be very drawn out.

Seventh, and this has more to do with the format of the story than the actual content itself. I will be splitting this series into two different stories. The first book, this one, will focus on Ichigo's integration into the supernatural world, which is much, much larger than he could have imagined. The second book will be DxD canon, with some (many) changes due to Ichigo's presence.

Also, the chapters of the first book will be written mainly in two parts: Past, which is what Ichigo was doing before he was reincarnated into a Devil, before this prologue takes place, and Present, which is what takes place after this prologue.

Those are all of the changes I can think of so far. I'll update this list as the story progresses.

Once again, to all fans of Dragonberry Chronicles, thank you for sticking with that story for so long, and I'm sorry for my decision, but please understand, and I hope you will enjoy this new story.

That is all. As always, please read and review.

And don't go away, for the next chapter is already up!


	2. Life 1: Welcome to Hell

Welcome to the first full chapter of Hellfire.

On with the story!

* * *

Past

Ichigo trudged his way through the dimly lit town in the wee hours of the morning, before Yuzu even got up to make breakfast, or his father to prepare for the day's work.

He was already 18. Not quite the age of majority yet in Japan, but he had been taking care of himself for a while. So why would that be any different now, especially since he had graduated from high school just a week ago?

It had been three years.

Three years since he had first become a Shinigami, a protector of the balance between the living and the dead. Three years since he had gone on a near suicide mission to rescue Rukia, the one who had brought him into that strange, wondrous world. Three years since he had gotten involved in a war between Gotei 13 and a megalomaniac leading an army of Arrancars. Three years since he had sacrificed his powers to defeat said megalomaniac, and ensure the safety of his family, friends, allies, and the world, and in doing so, doomed himself to a life of normalcy.

And it had been a painful three years.

The lack of interaction with Gotei 13 was understandable. For one, he couldn't exactly see them anymore now that he had lost his powers.

A problem easily remedied if they used Gigais, but with Soul Society in the state it had been in after the whole Aizen debacle, he knew that he couldn't expect his Shinigami friends to have the free time to come down and visit him, not when there was so much work to be done.

It certainly hurt that none of them, not even Rukia or Renji, had made the effort to try, as far as he knew anyway, but at least, he could still understand.

What he _couldn't_ understand was the way that everyone else had been treating him since then.

His friends, Uryu, Orihime, and his best friend since middle school, Chad, the ones who had stuck with him on his suicide mission to Soul Society, and then to Hueco Mundo, and even Tatsuki, Keigo and Mizuiro, who had known about that side of the world when Aizen had almost killed them, had taken to ignoring him, quickly breaking up any conversations they were having when he approached them, directing mournful and pitying looks at him when they thought he wasn't looking, the former three taking off to take care of any Hollows without so much as a glance towards him.

It was as though they thought that he would fall to pieces at the mere mention of what he had lost.

Kisuke, Yoruichi and Tessai…they had been fine at first, but after his first visit to Urahara Shoten after the battle with Aizen, he had overheard his father on the phone with Kisuke, telling him, and by extension, Yoruichi and Urahara Shoten's employees, to leave him alone and not remind him of his loss. Since then, they had been avoiding him as well, though they had been more welcoming as of late.

Too little, too late, though.

And presumably, that was the same reason the Vizards never came around either.

His father…what he wouldn't give to just break the dumb bastard's nose.

He and his father had never been all that close, even before his mother's death. He was the momma's boy, and his sisters were daddy's girls.

Still, he thought that his father would at least help him with the PTSD that he had inevitably developed in the aftermath of a war that a then 15-year-old had no business even knowing of, let alone fighting on the frontlines. Or maybe help him with the gaping hole that had been left in his heart and soul in the wake of Zangetsu's and his Inner Hollow's disappearance after using the Final Getsuga Tensho. If he had known of the ultimate technique that would drain Ichigo of his powers in return, then surely it was reasonable to believe that the guy had used it before, and had to deal with the same crap that Ichigo was going through?

But no, instead, the bastard had decided to pretend that nothing had happened. That Ichigo hadn't just finished fighting a nearly all powerful megalomaniac hellbent on destroying the world's order. That he hadn't just revealed that he was actually a former Shinigami Captain in disguise, causing Ichigo to question the very basis of his existence. That Ichigo didn't have a piece of his soul ripped out of him.

He was probably the one who had convinced the rest that he knew what was best for Ichigo, and that Ichigo should never have to be reminded of what had happened ever again.

Bull. He probably just didn't want to have to explain himself to Ichigo.

Then again, this was the guy who thought that jump kicking his son every fucking morning since he was 9 was the best way to wake him up. Ichigo really shouldn't have expected much from him in the first place.

And the one whose actions really hurt him the most was his little sister, Karin.

He and his little sisters, tomboyish Karin and sweet Yuzu, were always close, especially after their mother's murder. His father was a complete idiot, so Ichigo had to be the one to raise and nurture them, doing everything from waking up at 6 in the morning to make them breakfast and making sure that they reached school on time to taking care of all the household chores so that they wouldn't have to come home to a pigsty and helping them out with their schoolwork, at least until Yuzu was old enough that she wanted to take care of some of the chores herself, which Ichigo had reluctantly agreed to, just the simple ones, and making sure that she knew what she was doing lest she injured herself, and eventually, she took over the full job once she was tall enough to use the stove without a stool and knew how to use a knife properly. Even then, he made sure to take care of some chores when he felt that she was too overworked.

In Karin's case, they had an agreement that they needed to keep any boys away from her, working together to chase any of those idiots off. It was pretty easy, considering that his orange hair made him look like a delinquent, something that had caused him no end of troubles for years. When he had caught Karin staring longingly at a group of boys playing soccer in the field, he was the one who helped sign her up for the town's local soccer club, letting her enjoy her newfound hobby.

It helped that he and Karin were the only ones in the family who could see ghosts, back when his father had done a good job of pretending that he couldn't, and Ichigo thought that they were especially close because of that.

So, it had really hurt when after losing his powers, Karin decided that it was a good idea to listen to their father for once and blatantly ignore him, running off to spend more time at Urahara Shoten than she did at home, where Ichigo usually was after school.

He had overheard his father and Kisuke talking about how Karin's powers seemed to have been getting stronger ever since his vanished, and figured that knowing how to defend herself from Hollows would help, since the fallen souls would surely be attracted to large reiatsu signatures like hers.

Still didn't stop the sharp pang of pain that pierced his heart the first time he had caught her entering Urahara Shoten, a place that he no longer had any business frequenting, no thanks to his old man.

At least he still had Yuzu, but even his sweet little sister, while not limiting her interactions with him like everyone else did, treated him like he was made of cracked glass.

Eventually, he had enough of all the pity, the secrecy, and decided that he was going to leave once he had graduated.

Why not? He was responsible enough to take care of himself. All of the good universities were located in other, more distant parts of Japan in case he ever wanted to pursue further education. He knew he could get in any of them. He had graduated 2nd best out of his year, after Uryu, and boy, hadn't that been a shock to the rest of his schoolmates. His sisters were all grown up already, though he still worried for Yuzu a little, but he knew that Karin and their father would take care of her.

And it wasn't like he was needed, _wanted_ , anymore here.

And so, Ichigo had spent the past 3 years planning his departure, renting his services to the school's sports clubs, raking in a substantial amount of money for living expenses, working on a few skills like cooking that would help in getting him a part-time job in case he was ever strapped for cash, or wanted to start university, because wow, a good tertiary education in Japan cost a pretty penny, getting a driver's license the moment he turned 18, because he never knew when he might get tired of just letting his legs do the work, or of public transport, getting his passport in order in case he wanted to leave the country to travel for a while.

By the time graduation rolled around, Ichigo was more than set to leave, and that was exactly what he was doing right now.

He made sure to leave a note for his family on his desk, telling them where he had gone, and that he wasn't sure when, if, he was coming back.

This was it. The start of a new chapter in his life.

And Ichigo froze, sure that it was about to meet an abrupt end when he caught sight of 3 figures waiting from him in the street up ahead.

Kisuke, Yoruichi, and surprisingly, Uryu's father, Ishida Ryuken, a Quincy, a friend of his father's and the director of the town's only hospital.

Crap, had they caught wind of his plans somehow and were going to stop him?

Still…it was already too late for him to turn back, and he did not want to.

Ichigo maintained his pace, until he reached the three.

"…Well, I wish I could say I was surprised to see you leaving, Kurosaki-san, but I'm really not. I am, however, honestly surprised that it took you this long." Kisuke said as Ichigo stopped in front of him, a sad smile visible on his face.

"You knew I would leave?"

"Oh yes, for quite a while now. I would like to think that I'm a better judge of your character than say, your father."

Ichigo bit down a retort, but couldn't suppress his bitter thoughts.

If Kisuke was such a good judge of his character, then why couldn't he tell how much their treatment hurt him?

Kisuke seemed to see right through him.

"We wish we could say that we had a good reason for listening to your father, but we don't. We apologize, Kurosaki-san. We truly believed that he would help you through this difficult period rather than completely ignore you and rope everyone else into doing the same thing as well. We only realized what was really going on just a few days ago, during your graduation, and you were already dead set on leaving."

Ichigo recalled his graduation ceremony, when Kisuke had suddenly offered an invitation to his shop after avoiding for 3 years.

Evidently, his bewilderment had not gone unnoticed.

"We have already failed you once, and have no intention of doing so again. Rather than convince you to stay in this painful place, we decided to support you instead." The shopkeeper said with a sigh.

"Really?" Ichigo asked with a deadpan tone.

Kisuke and Yoruichi, he could see, but Ryuken, the no nonsense single father?

The retired Quincy turned doctor seemed to detect Ichigo's skepticism and explained.

"I personally am of the opinion that you are still too young to be wandering off on your own, but unfortunately, I have firsthand experience of the futility of trying to argue with any orange-haired person named Kurosaki."

Ichigo's eyes widened at the implications of Ryuken's words.

"You…my mother…" Ichigo croaked out, but paused when Ryuken handed him a card.

A debit card, from one of Japan's largest banks.

"It's the card for a bank account your mother opened in your name when you were born and deposited money in every month until her death, meant for your university fees. It's been in my care since then, considering that your father never had much of a head for money. There should be enough to pay for an undergraduate degree regardless of which university you choose to attend. The PIN is your date of birth. I trust you won't carelessly spend it?"

Ichigo accepted it with slightly shaking hands.

There was no way in hell he would treat it carelessly. He would never do that to his mother's memory.

"As for me, I've taken the liberty of hacking into the Basic Resident Registers Network and creating a new identity for you! Wouldn't want your plan to go awry because your family filed a missing person's report, would you?" Kisuke spoke up, his usual cheery attitude returning.

"You? Hack the government's database?" Ichigo asked incredulously.

"Why, I'm offended, Kurosaki-san! Just because my computers look outdated doesn't mean that I'm not savvy with modern technology! Here's your new registration card, driver's license and passport. Give your old ones to me. I'll drop them off back in your room." Kisuke exclaimed as he passed two more cards and a passport to Ichigo, who removed his real cards from his wallet, passing them to the shopkeeper, and slotted the new ones into their places, including the debit card Ryuken gave him before dropping both the wallet and the new passport back into his backpack.

"Oh, one more thing! Here." Kisuke suddenly remembered and passed something to Ichigo.

"A cellphone?"

"Unlimited calls and messages, and able to connect from anywhere in the world! Do call every now and then. We wouldn't want to think that you had gone off and died in a ditch somewhere!" Kisuke said, keeping his tone jovial, but Ichigo could detect the hint of genuine concern.

"Got it."

Ichigo accepted the phone and slid it into his pocket.

The shopkeeper took a step back, prompting Yoruichi to take his place.

The Goddess of Flash and her onetime student stared at each other in awkward silence for a while before she drew him into a tight hug.

"Stay safe out there, you hear?" She demanded of him.

"Of course. You know me."

"Yes, and that's exactly why I can't help but worry." Yoruichi drawled as she pulled away from the hug and gave him a business card.

"What's this?"

"The contact details for a real estate agency based in Kyoto, but with operations all over Japan. I know the boss, and she's agreed to knock down the price for you if you ever get tired of wandering and want to settle down somewhere. Just don't expect anything too fancy though. They still have a business to run."

Ichigo blinked. First Kisuke has a knack for modern hacking, and now Yoruichi has a human friend? Will the wonders never cease?

Then again, they had been hiding out in the human world for over 100 years, and Yoruichi was a notorious wanderer, though she tended to do it in the form of a cat. Maybe he shouldn't be surprised.

"Thanks." Ichigo said to all three of them.

"Of course, Kurosaki-san. Now, you might want to get going before anyone else notices that you're gone." Kisuke said jovially.

They were about to leave, when Kisuke stopped and turned back to regard Ichigo with a serious expression.

"By the way, Kurosaki-san, did you leave your Substitute Shinigami badge behind?"

Ichigo blinked at the shopkeeper's odd expression and the equally odd question.

"Er…yeah. Why? Should I have brought it with me?"

It was a bit risky, but Ichigo thought he was stealthy enough to sneak back into his room and take the now useless trinket with him without his family noticing if it was important.

He had figured out its secret a while back, when he had nothing to do but ponder on Ukitake's words, and did not begrudge the white-haired Captain for it.

Ukitake Jushiro could not have reached the top ranks of Gotei 13 by being a nice guy, and he had worded it so that Ichigo would be able to figure out its purpose if he thought on it enough.

Ichigo had to wonder how many Substitute Shinigami before him did not enjoy the same privilege.

He had almost slipped the thing into his backpack before thinking better of it and using it as a paperweight to keep his note in place.

He didn't want Yuzu freaking out over his unexplained disappearance just because a gust of wind blew it under his bed or something.

"No, no. Quite the contrary. It's a very good thing you didn't bring it with you. Wouldn't want to give Central 46 an easy way of tracking you. I think they've already interfered enough with your life." Kisuke said very seriously.

Ichigo frowned, before his eyes widened in understanding.

Ah, so that was why his Shinigami friends hadn't been coming around.

He should have figured that Soul Society's main governing body had something to do with it.

Rukia and Renji had once jokingly told him that killing off the council of miserable old bats was one of the few good things Aizen had done during his coup d'état.

Maybe that hadn't been as much of a joke as he had thought at the time.

Usually, the more boisterous of Ichigo's Shinigami friends would probably still have risked it, but the more rational amongst them probably stopped them.

With the state the war with Aizen had left Soul Society in, the last thing they needed was a civil war, and Ichigo would have felt horrible if one had broken out because of him.

At least, he felt better knowing that some of his friends weren't dumb enough to just trust his father's word.

Ichigo nodded in gratitude to the shopkeeper, who smiled back.

"Good luck, Kurosaki-san, and do stay out of trouble."

"I don't go looking for trouble. It comes looking for me." Ichigo immediately quipped back.

With one last good-natured smile, they parted and went their separate ways, Kisuke and Yoruichi heading back to the shop, Ryuken presumably off to begin his day at the hospital, and Ichigo towards the train station, not entirely certain of where he was headed.

He figured that he would just pick a line and ride it until he got hungry, or tired.

Not knowing what awaited him was part of the fun, after all.

* * *

Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, the esteemed Captain Commander of Gotei 13, let out a low groan of frustration once he was sure that the other 12 Captains had left the meeting hall.

The topic of their most recent meeting, ending just a few minutes ago, was of course, Kurosaki Ichigo.

Genryusai let out another groan.

The damn boy didn't even have his Shinigami powers anymore, and he was still somehow managing to cause headaches for him.

Then again, wasn't it the boy's very personality that had endeared him to so many of them in different ways?

Shihoin Yoruichi had entered Soul Society to inform them that the boy had decided to leave his town behind a few hours ago, and made sure that the relevant parties, i.e. the Captains, Lieutenants and the friends that the former Substitute Shinigami had among their ranks, knew exactly why.

Genryusai felt a surge of anger, causing the temperature of the surrounding area to noticeably rise before he absentmindedly reined in his fluctuating reiatsu with contemptible ease.

He had always known Shiba, now Kurosaki, Isshin to be an irresponsible, complete and utter fool, but even he hadn't thought that he was this much of an imbecile.

And now his son was paying the price for that.

If he ever got the chance, Genryusai made a note to remember to conk the fool on the cranium with his cane.

And he was not the only one who held that opinion.

Hitsugaya Toshiro and Matsumoto Rangiku, who had both served under Shiba Isshin while he was still in active service, looked like they had lost any remaining respect that they had for their former Captain.

The Captains of the 6th and 13th Divisions had to physically restrain their Lieutenants to stop them from marching down to the human world and giving the boy's family and friends (a term that Genryusai used loosely, for he did not believe that the fools who could betray the trust of someone with as much personal loyalty as Kurosaki Ichigo deserved such a moniker) a piece of their minds, or maybe just a royal beating. They themselves, as well as several others, looked like they had half a mind to do just the same.

Unfortunately, Central 46 managed to catch wind of the boy's departure, and had ordered Soifon to send out the Onmitsukido to capture him and bring him back immediately, no doubt so that they could keep him under observation and move to detain him permanently if he ever showed any signs of regaining his former powers.

Genryusai let out a third groan.

Why, oh why, did the Soul King have to implement the council of power hungry fools? Did he not have faith that Gotei 13 was capable of running Soul Society by themselves?

…Well, maybe Aizen Sosuke's recent rebellion hadn't exactly inspired much confidence, but Central 46 had been taken in by his façade just as much as they had!

Now, Genryusai was many things.

Old, grizzled, cynical, rigid in ways that even Central 46 and the Four Great Noble Clans could not compare, but he did, above all else, honor his debts.

And all of Soul Society owed Kurosaki Ichigo many a debt for stopping several conflicts that they could not by themselves.

(And just why they needed to rely on a then 15-year-old child to solve their problems for them, Genryusai simply could not understand. Maybe the elder Captains shouldn't have been so stingy with the usage of their Bankais?)

So, while he wouldn't risk a civil war by opposing Central 46 directly, he could, however, help the boy from afar, such as ordering Soifon to dispatch the most incompetent members of the Onmitsukido she could find, and telling Hirako Shinji, the newly reinstated Captain of the 5th Division, to contact the Vizards who remained in the human world to waylay them.

" _Live, Kurosaki Ichigo, so that one day, we can repay our debt to you in full."_

* * *

Present

"No! No way in hell that's true!"

"Of course it is! This is how all Devils, natural or reincarnated, learn to fly!"

Ichigo was presently having an argument with his new…King…while half-buried in dirt at the foot of a cliff in Serafall's personal territory in the Underworld.

It had been about a week since he had been reincarnated into Serafall's Queen, and he was slowly adjusting to life as a Devil, which started with working to be able to be exposed to sunlight without feeling like a dried up prune.

After that, Serafall brought him down to the Underworld, via a dimension-traversing train of all things, located in an underground station beneath the town in which her mansion had been constructed, completely inaccessible to humans.

It had been a pleasant surprise to find that the part of the Underworld that the Devils live in was not that much different from Earth, bar the purple sky, the false moon, the lack of a sun and additional land mass in place of oceans.

He had been expecting a pit of fire and brimstone, much like the place where he had defeated Kokuto at had been, inhabited by barely civilized soul-devouring monsters in human guises. Was that discriminatory?

Instead, he found out that the Devils' society wasn't much different from that of humans', though Ichigo thought that it resembled Soul Society's social structure most.

The Devils were ruled by the Four Maous, Sirzechs Lucifer, formerly Sirzechs Gremory, Serafall Leviathan, formerly Serafall Sitri, Ajuka Beelzebub, formerly Ajuka Astaroth, and Falbium Asmodeus, formerly Falbium Glasya-Labolas.

Ichigo supposed they were the equivalent of Soul Society's enigmatic Soul King.

After becoming a Devil, he had regained his ability to sense reiatsu, or at least gained a similar ability, and thus was able to sense that Serafall was hiding a tremendous amount of power within that tiny body of hers.

She possessed enough reiatsu to match the Captain Commander, and Ichigo got the feeling that that wasn't all of the power she had.

He still couldn't get the incomprehensible, chilling, ethereal sensation that he felt when he first laid eyes on her out of his head.

If one Maou possessed that much power, what about the other three?

On a side note, the reason for the repeated use of 'formerly' was because the Maous were not allowed to bear their former Clan names out of fear of a single Devil gaining too much power, and were thus no longer eligible to be the next heads of the Clans, despite being the only child of each of their Clans at the time of their ascension.

Originally, before the Great War between the three Biblical Factions, there were Seven Maous, but Belphegor and Mammon perished a long time ago under unknown circumstances, and their thrones removed, the Belphegor and Mammon bloodlines falling in prestige while the original Devil, Satan himself, mysteriously vanished long ago, and was presumed dead, his own bloodline, which had consisted solely of the first Maou himself since he never had any progenies, ceased to exist, leaving only Lucifer, Leviathan, Beelzebub and Asmodeus as the remaining Four Maous.

Said remaining Four Maous would then perish in the Great War, leaving their thrones empty for a short while before their wildly incompetent kin tried to take their place, which resulted in the civil war of the Devils between the Old Maou Faction and the rebel faction, now known as the Current Maou Faction, which lasted for years, ending in the rebel faction's victory and resulting in the ascension of the current Four Maous, and the formation of the Devils' council which advised the Maous.

At the bottom of the Devils' hierarchy were the Low-Class Devils, the lowest social class among Devils which all non-Clan affiliated Devils and Devils reincarnated from non-Devil beings, except Ichigo himself, automatically fell into. He likened it to the same social status that the residents of Rukongai had in Soul Society, which was to say, next to none.

Next were the Middle-Class Devils. They were Low-Class Devils that had been awarded a chance for promotion through their merits and successfully passed the examinations required. They were the equivalent of the non-seated and non-nobility ranks of Gotei 13, acknowledged and treated better than Low-Class Devils, but still looked down upon by the more arrogant of the High-Class Devils.

The status of a Devil could be raised through their achievements, mainly in three categories: contracting with humans, military accomplishments, and the Rating Game, which was a competition between two Devils with peerages, and apparently the Devils' national pastime. Other achievements could count as well, if they were significant enough.

The first method, granting avaricious humans their desires in return for a price (not their souls these days, thankfully), was considered the slowest, unless the humans they formed contracts with had considerable influence, like a country's president. However, all Devils these days inevitably start out from there.

The second was the fastest method, but extremely unlikely, because the Devils were currently in a period of uneasy ceasefire with their main enemies: the Fallen Angels of the Grigori, and the forces of Heaven, consisting of the Angels and the Church, and any notable accomplishment in combat would also likely shatter the fragile peace and start another war.

The third method was considered the modern method, which was to participate and achieve high rankings in the Rating Game, which Ichigo learned was started to be a substitute for war so that Devils who had never participated in actual combat could hone their skills in a controlled non-lethal environment and hopefully _not_ get killed in the event that they ever have to fight an enemy to the death.

The next class after Middle-Class was High-Class, which was what all Pure Blood Devils affiliated with the 72 Pillars, the Devils' 72 main Clans, and the Extra Clans, the bloodlines of exceptionally powerful Devils who weren't originally part of the 72 Pillars. They were the rank equivalent of Soul Society's nobility, and from what he had been told, the power equivalents of seated Shinigami from the 20th Seat to a Lieutenant of average skill, though talented and/or experienced ones possessed powers that were above even that.

All High-Class Devils, whether by birth or by promotion, were required to enter the Devils' capital, Lilith, and touch a monument which would register them as a King, and then given a set of Evil Pieces so that they could start their own peerage.

Ichigo thought it was rather strange that they didn't just create a King Piece like they had with the other chess pieces, and had said as much to Serafall.

The usually carefree Leviathan grew incredibly serious and said that she would explain it to him when she was sure that there were no eavesdroppers around.

And finally, after High-Class came the rarely awarded Ultimate-Class. They were the undisputed strongest Devils, bar the Four Maous themselves. In other words, the equivalents of Gotei 13's Captains. Like how no Devil was Middle-Class by birth, there were also no Devils who were Ultimate-Class from the beginning. Every active Ultimate-Class Devil earned their title through their own merits, the oldest of them having participated in and fought on the frontlines of the Great War and/or the civil war, and the more recently promoted ones mainly through the Rating Games. The top 10 rankers of the Rating Game were all Ultimate-Class Devils, with the current 7th ranked being the highest-ranked Reincarnated Devil, and the top 5 rankers apparently never having moved from their positions since the start of the Rating Games, each of them said to possess power equivalent to the original Four Maous.

Ichigo wondered why Serafall seemed to uncharacteristically grimace when she talked about the top 5, and wondered if it had something to do with the topic of the King Piece.

There were exceptions, like the peerages of the Four Maous, which Ichigo was told were not allowed to participate in the Rating Games, whether as part of their liege's peerage, or as the King of their own.

Instead, they fought in exhibition matches against other Devils of higher classes, and depending on how well they performed, would be given a class.

For example, Sirzechs Lucifer's only Knight, who Ichigo had been utterly stunned to learn was _the_ Okita Souji of the Shinsengumi, a legendary figure in Japanese history, fought against his own peerage's Queen, Grayfia Lucifuge of the Lucifuge Extra Clan, the direct servants of the original Lucifer, and also happened to be the only one among the Four Maous' peerages to have become Ultimate-Class without going through the same process, having fought alongside the rebel faction led by the current Four Maous after defecting from the Old Maou Faction.

While the legendary samurai's skills and considerable power hadn't been able to win against his Queen's overwhelming power and experience, he had performed far better than almost any other Devil would have, and was thus immediately promoted to Ultimate-Class.

Similarly, the rest of the Maous' peerages had undergone that process, and soon, so would Ichigo.

But before that, he needed to get used to his new body and powers first.

The first thing he and Serafall had done once they had arrived in the Underworld was to pay a visit to Serafall's parents, Rune and Sanna Sitri, in their mansion in the territory of the Sitri Clan, which was apparently about the size of Japan's largest island, Honshu.

Even if the Underworld had much more land mass than Earth, it was hard to believe that a single Clan controlled that much territory, when you considered that a good part of the land belonged to the Fallen Angels, and the part belonging to Devils had to be split up among the Maous, several dozen Clans, high-ranking Devils and whatnot.

Apparently, having a Maou for a daughter reaped quite a number of benefits.

Rune Sitri, the current head of the Sitri Clan, was a rather young man with black hair, ice blue eyes, a lithe structure not unlike Uryu's, even having spectacles that reminded Ichigo achingly of his estranged friend.

Sanna Sitri looked like how Ichigo pictured Serafall would look like if she were to age her own body to her mid to late 20s, with black hair and violet eyes.

Shock was a bit of an understatement for how they reacted when they learned that Serafall had finally gotten her Queen, and it was the same individual who had laid waste to a good portion of the Nine Circles of Hell four years ago.

Rune fixed Ichigo with a stern gaze, and unlike what he had thought, courtesy of his past interactions with Byakuya, the first thing he said was not a haughty order to not do anything that would bring shame to Serafall's, and by extension, the Sitri Clan's, name, or a demand to know why he had annihilated the first three Circles of Hell like he had been expecting from a Clan head.

Rather, it had been a simple question.

What did he think of Serafall?

Ichigo didn't miss a beat when answering.

"I personally think your daughter is certifiably insane."

There was an awkward silence for a moment when no one said a thing, or even reacted. The three Sitris simply stared at Ichigo blankly.

Then, Rune snorted and burst into a fit of uproarious laughter, which Ichigo could not ever picture the overly serious and straight-laced Uryu doing, Sanna dissolved into giggles, and Serafall shot him a mock offended look.

He must have made a good impression on them, for Rune proceeded to clap him on the shoulder and proclaim that he approved of his daughter's choice.

He apparently thought that Serafall needed someone who wasn't afraid of calling her out on her shenanigans, who was not him or Sanna.

Scolding their children for misbehavior was exactly what parents were expected to do, and Serafall had heard enough of his and Sanna's admonishments that she did not even take them seriously anymore.

They stayed the night, during which Ichigo was asked to choose a portion of Serafall's massive territory to control, as was the tradition for peerage members, and he fumbled around for a moment, utterly bamboozled that he was actually being freely given land, before settling on a remote mountainous area that looked like it could provide some decent peace and quiet, something he suspected that he would be needing a lot of if he had to deal with Serafall's insanity on a regular basis, and the next morning, they departed for Lilith so that he could be formally introduced to the Maous and the Devils' council, this time accompanied by several Devils in identical black suits, probably bodyguards for Serafall, though why someone as strong as she appeared to be needed so many bodyguards who were all undoubtedly weaker than she was.

Serafall had changed out of her Mahou Shoujo outfit in favor of a much more formal dark green shirt and black skirt, giving her a much more mature appearance unbefitting of her childlike body.

That just went to show how important this meeting apparently was.

The capital of the Devils' was massive, easily matching Seireitei in size, but was definitely much more technologically advanced than the Shinigami's citadel that appeared to be perpetually stuck in the Edo period.

Several modern family homes and shops formed multiple residential districts around a cluster of high rise buildings in the center of the capital, which appeared to be the industrial district.

The sight of the closely compacted skyscrapers actually reminded Ichigo a lot of New York City, where he had visited and stayed for a week during the year between his departure from his hometown and his first meeting with Serafall.

The two of them disembarked from the Sitri Clan's private train at a train station in one of the outer residential districts, where they were promptly greeted by shocked gazes from adult Devils, and excited shrieks and squeals from the children, much to Ichigo's confusion.

He could understand the shock. The adults probably weren't expecting to see one of their rulers in public, especially not up close, and in the company of an unknown man.

But the children's reaction? He just couldn't understand.

That was when the kids ran up to Serafall with pens and paper, begging for an autograph from 'Mahou Shoujo Levia-tan', which she gleefully complied with and even posed for photos with them.

Ichigo began to get an inkling of the reason why kids were so excited to see her, which was confirmed when Serafall told him that she was the main character in a tokusatsu TV show, extremely popular amongst children.

He was starting to wonder if he would ever catch a glimpse of sanity in this suddenly maddening world.

Once the children's excitement began to die down, they departed for an underground train station, where they boarded a private train that led them straight to a platform in the basement of the largest building in the capital, which was where important meetings between the Maous and the council took place.

The meeting took place in a conference room on the top floor of the building.

The moment he stepped into the room, he took notice of three of the men already waiting there.

The first was a lanky young man with green hair and tired jade-colored eyes, slouched over a table like he was in the process of falling asleep.

The second was another young man, this one with jet black hair, sharp grey eyes, wearing a mysterious smile on his face.

The third was a rather effeminate young man with shoulder-length crimson hair and green blue eyes, a gentle smile on his face as he engaged the second man in conversation, though they halted when he and Serafall stepped into the room.

All three of them looked like they were Ichigo's age, but considering that Serafall fought on the frontlines of a civil war that took place centuries ago and still looked like a teenager, he knew that their physical appearance was not a good indicator of their actual age.

But, that wasn't why Ichigo's attention was drawn towards them.

It was because of their reiatsu that he could sense. The three of them possessed reiatsu on the same level as Serafall's, and all of them felt like they were still purposely suppressing their true power.

And then there were the mysterious sensations Ichigo felt while near them. Similar to Serafall's, fleeting and incomprehensible.

The first sensation felt as though he was standing in the eye of a tornado, safe from the raging winds around him, but uncomfortably aware of the painful death that awaited him if he made the wrong move.

The second felt ever-changing, as though the world itself defied the laws of nature to bend to his whim.

The third terrified him. It felt like a dark void from which there was no escape once pulled in, a void that utterly annihilated anything and everything it touched.

It was then that Ichigo knew that he was looking at the other Maous.

Falbium Asmodeus, Ajuka Beelzebub and Sirzechs Lucifer.

He also took note of the other Devils in the room, likely the men that made up the council, each of varying age, but compared to the Four Maous present, they might as well have been specks of dust, unnoticeable and uninteresting.

Serafall formally introduced him to them, and while the three other Maous greeted him amicably, Ichigo noted that the councilmen, who reminded Ichigo not so fondly of Central 46, were extremely stiff and overly polite when addressing him, not to mention looking like they wanted to be anywhere else but there.

He later learned from a giggling Serafall that they were all afraid of her.

She was considered the most volatile of the Four Maous, something that didn't surprise Ichigo at all, and someone that she actually reincarnated herself must be someone special, for the only member of her peerage up to that point had been the Legendary Beast King of the Earth, Behemoth, and they felt that if they insulted him, unintentionally or otherwise, they might incur her wrath.

But even more than that, they were afraid of Ichigo himself.

Putting aside the incident shortly after the battle with Aizen, before his powers had dissipated fully, where he broke into Hell to save Yuzu and ended up annihilating the first three Circles of Hell and severely damaging the structural integrity of the Fourth, an act that had utterly terrified the Devils, and apparently the Fallen Angels, who lived in the same realm as well, sending them into a widespread panic, there was also the aforementioned battle with the megalomaniac itself.

Serafall had worded it quite appropriately herself.

"Ichigo-chan (wow, it had taken an inordinate amount of effort to get her to switch to that slightly more acceptable way of addressing him), when you gained that ridiculous power to challenge that madman, _everyone_ felt it. Most humans probably didn't even notice it, they are rather clueless in that regard, but the rest of the world? The moment you gained that power in the Dangai, it sent _titanic_ waves of _sheer power_ reverberating throughout the dimensions, so massive that it even caused we Maous down here in the Underworld to shudder and look around for the source in our immediate vicinity. Forget being in the same dimension, we actually thought that you were in the same _room_ as us, before realizing the effect wasn't confined to just the Underworld. And when you unleashed that last attack, it honestly surprised us that the metaphysical walls between dimensions hadn't come crashing down around us, all of reality consequently cast out into a primordial sea of chaos and utterly annihilated. That was how powerful that attack had been. Well, I guess that also goes to show how focused and concentrated it had been as well, to be confined to only a single dimension despite its power. Then again, if it was still strong enough to be felt across the dimensional barriers even after being compressed like that…it must be incredibly strong, at least on the level of a God."

And though he had lost that power, he still possessed the _potential_ to gain power of the same level. The fact that Serafall had to use something called a Mutation Piece, whatever that was, seemed to cement that in their minds.

They weren't used to having to deal with someone as powerful as he was become a Reincarnated Devil that the more traditional among the Pure Bloods generally looked down upon, and were torn between their usual condescendence and their fear of his power.

The meeting was soon over, with nothing being discussed other than what was expected of him as Maou Leviathan's Queen (it truly boggled him that _Serafall_ of all people was in charge of foreign affairs and diplomacy), and that his test would be held in a month, with his opponent being Sirzechs's Queen, Grayfia Lucifuge, as Serafall had predicted.

The moment the meeting adjourned, Serafall rushed them over to her personal territory as Maou Leviathan, which, while not as large as the Sitri Clan's Honshu sized territory, was an incredible amount of land area for a single person to control.

She immediately got him started on his training, saying that they needed to rush if he wanted to win against the woman who was called the Underworld's Strongest Queen.

First, she tried to get him to tap into his reserves.

That much was no problem. He had so much reiatsu that he had trouble suppressing it.

It certainly looked and felt different, being pitch black rather than the light blue it had once been. No surprise, considering he was a Devil now.

Serafall seemed to be satisfied with that, so she went on to the next item on the list.

Getting him to tap into the power he had received from Hell four years ago.

Ichigo pointed out the flaw in her idea immediately. He had only used that power for about a minute, and it had been four years since then. He had absolutely no idea how to use it again. He hadn't even known that it had stayed with him, or that _it had been steadily growing stronger_ _while dormant inside him_ until Serafall told him.

Serafall smiled…and then threw a giant icicle that she had conjured at his head.

Ichigo yelped and hastily dodged the very, very sharp frozen construct that would have pierced his eyeball if he hadn't moved in time.

Before he could demand an explanation from Serafall, he had to jump backwards to avoid a frozen stalagmite that sprouted from the ground.

As Ichigo was forced to dance between many, many ice constructs sharp enough to tear through his flesh, and then some, Serafall made her intentions known.

From what she had observed of him, he was a very blunt fighter, the type that learned best through combat, hence why she had chosen to attack him out of the blue.

Plus, he had a tendency to only draw out his full power when he or someone dear to him was in mortal peril, like he had during his invasion of Hell, causing the realm itself to respond to him, which was why she was aiming for his fatal blows.

The scale of Serafall's attacks slowly escalated. What initially began as a lethal barrage of icicles quickly turned into massive animated ice constructs like golems and dragons that looked like they could, and most definitely would, kill him the moment they managed to land a blow on him.

He tried using the unarmed combat skills he had honed from years of forced delinquency, and while becoming a Devil had increased his physical capabilities to an impressive degree, enabling him to move at speeds that could match his first raw and unrefined attempts at Shunpo even without using the speed technique itself and to shatter Serafall's ice constructs with little effort, the speed at which they simply regenerated and the rate at which his King was churning out new ones, he was being overwhelmed fast.

His frustration began to surface when Serafall kicked it up another notch and converted the surroundings into a frozen tundra, basically turning the entire terrain into Ichigo's enemy.

Why…couldn't he fight back? Why was he so helpless against her? As it was right now…how was he any different from how he was powerless?

He had to fight back. It didn't matter how, but he had to fight back.

What he needed was…power!

Power to fight back!

FIGHT BACK!

At that moment, one of the massive ice golems reached out with its left hand to crush him, and at the same time, Ichigo felt something surge inside of him.

There was a certain feel to it, a feeling that, much like how he was intimately familiar with the feel of his own body, made him certain this something was very much his.

But, there was something else there too. Something that was only vaguely familiar to him, like he only had a passing memory that left only the faintest of impressions.

Something old.

Something powerful.

Something dark.

Something that beyond understanding.

It was…

… **Power.**

When Ichigo came to, it was to see that the surrounding area, already turned into a winter wonderland by Serafall, had been completely flattened and reduced to a barren patch of land, without a single speck of ice in sight, and his King, her clothes torn and barely preserving her decency, looking worn out, but very happy.

And also, he could sense it. Something inside of him. A reiatsu that did not feel like his own.

It was old, incomprehensibly so, and so very dark, darker than even Ichigo's current Devil reiatsu.

It was small at the moment, but he felt that if he wanted to, he could draw out even more, much like he could turn a tap to get it to dispense larger volumes of water.

And most of all, it didn't feel like it was coming from Ichigo himself. It was certainly inside him, and he was drawing it from there, but it also felt like its source was elsewhere, yet he was still able to pull on it as though it was his own reiatsu.

What had happened? He couldn't remember.

They had to take a break so they could both recover their strength.

The first thing that Serafall taught him was that throwing out his power randomly was highly inefficient.

He likened it to how it would have been much less efficient if Ichigo had tried to fire off a wave of reiatsu from his hands rather than simply use Zangetsu to fire off a Getsuga Tensho.

It needed to be reshaped first, like simply compressing it to increase its power, converting it into fire, or even just thermal energy, or through the use of magic circles and calculations, power a spell.

Ichigo's only real technique had ever been Getsuga Tensho, which hadn't required anything more than throwing a compressed wave of his reiatsu, which Zangetsu had done for him, so the idea of having to mold his reiatsu first was foreign to him.

Ichigo would have preferred it if he had a sword. He had always used Zangetsu to use his strongest attacks, so it felt weird to try fighting without a sword in hand. Hell, it might even make things easier for him.

He told Serafall as much, and she thought about it for a moment before teleporting off somewhere before returning just as quickly, with a pristine western sword in hand.

She threw it rather haphazardly to him, causing him to play a brief game of hot potato with the sword as he attempted to avoid cutting his hands on the blade and grip the handle.

She remarked that it was one of the many gifts she had received at the current Four Maous' inauguration, but since she did not use swords, or did she have any desire to, it had just been sitting in her vault collecting dust for centuries.

On the plus side, it was forged by one of the Devils' best blacksmiths at the time, so it was a weapon of a quality that could never be achieved by human hands. The blade was made of Orichalcum, a metal that no longer existed on earth, but could still be found in small, isolated deposits around the Underworld. The rare metal naturally conducted supernatural energy, like reiatsu, making it a viable weapon for him. Furthermore, it had been infused with magic to prevent it from rusting or blunting, which explained its still pristine appearance despite centuries of neglect, and would save Ichigo the trouble of having to maintain it.

However, she also warned him that as well forged as it was, it was in the end still inferior to a Zanpakuto that was tailor-made to channel the reiatsu of its owner, and if he constantly poured an overabundance of his reiatsu into it, it would wear out and shatter one day, and there wasn't enough Orichalcum in all of existence to reforge it every time he broke it.

Still, she encouraged him to use as much energy as he could just once so that she would know what she was working with.

Ichigo complied and began to channel his reserves into the blade.

The silverish metal began to take on a black hue as it drank in his demonic energy, his reserves pouring out at a very alarming rate.

And it wasn't just his reiatsu pouring into the blade. The other reiatsu was pouring into it as well.

The blade crackled with energy as Ichigo continued to pump in his reiatsu, until he began to get worried about how much he had already channeled.

He estimated that he had already poured in enough reiatsu to unleash a Getsuga Tensho that could destroy an entire town. Maybe more.

And it had not even been 10 seconds yet.

If he kept going, he might lose control of it. And possibly damage the sword in the process.

So, he stopped, and took a look at the blade, which had turned into shining obsidian color, and the air around it had darkened by several shades. That was just how saturated it was with his reiatsu.

Ichigo swung the saturated blade, hoping to recreate something like Getsuga Tensho so that he would have some familiar ground to work with, aiming it upwards towards the purple sky to avoid any more damage to the surroundings.

His vision turned black for a few moments. Not because he had lost consciousness like before, but because the wave of black demonic energy he had released was so massive that it had completely encompassed his entire field of vision at the moment of release, and then some.

By the time he could see other colors aside from black, the massive wave had already travelled a good distance skyward.

And then, it burst apart with a deafening explosion that would have scorched right through the atmosphere if the Underworld had one, and caused Ichigo's ears to ring in distress, quickly followed by a shockwave that knocked him and Serafall on their asses, not to mention tearing up not just the surrounding area, but the entire land area for miles from the epicenter.

No way in hell something that big had gone unnoticed.

What the hell just happened?

Getsuga Tensho was nothing more than a wave of condensed reiatsu that cut anything in its path.

That was what he had been aiming to recreate.

It most certainly did not _explode_.

He looked over to Serafall, hoping that she would have an explanation, only to find her alternating her gaze between the massive black clouds of ash that had appeared in the sky, the shattered surroundings, and then him.

Then, she grinned widely, looking like she had just won the lottery.

Ichigo really, really did not like that look. It spelt nothing but trouble for him.

Still, she did provide him with a plausible explanation.

Her theory was that when Ichigo hadn't just received a simple power boost from Hell. The realm had granted him a multitude of abilities.

He probably accessed it because he had been curious about what kind of powers Hell had given him, and thus, he got exactly what he wanted.

It made sense to him. When he received power from the Kushanada, he was able to instinctively use a blast of golden energy resembling Getsuga Tensho that defeated Kokuto in an instant. He thought that his Getsuga Tensho had just been influenced by the Kushanada's power, but…

But, at that time, his attack hadn't exploded at the end either.

Serafall laughed at him.

"Oh, Ichigo-chan, Ichigo-chan, you don't seriously think that a power granted to you by Hell itself would be so one-dimensional, do you? Why, you probably have a whole repertoire of abilities you have yet to discover! You just happened to use one of them this time!"

He definitely did not like the hungry look she gave him when she said that.

She proceeded to give him her evaluation of his power.

He already had plenty of it. With his massive reserves and the abilities given to him by Hell, a lack of power would likely never be a problem for him unless he somehow managed to completely exhaust his reserves.

Now, his _control_ , on the other hand…

To put it frankly, during this one month of training they had, they would largely be focusing on his control.

In her words…

"Ichigo-chan, I've seen Grayfia-chan fight before. I even fought her for the position of Leviathan back then! She's strong, worthy of her title as the Strongest Queen, but if you don't learn how to put a lid on your power, you might wind up killing her, especially if you get into a pinch and end up using much more power than you intended! This is just a spar after all. She probably won't use her full power unless you give her a good reason to, and even then, your power is just that dangerous. And trust me, Sirzechs-chan would not be very pleased with us if you accidently killed his wife."

Ichigo blinked at the extraneous information. The current Lucifer was married to his Queen?

He didn't get much more time to ponder on that, because Serafall rushed him off to get started on training his control.

The simplest way to build up his control was simply to train to fly.

The bat-like wings that all Devils had were actually too small to support a Devil's body for anything more than short flights, but by strengthening them with reiatsu, or demonic energy, as Devils called it, they could be used for extended glides and complicated aerial maneuvers.

But, masterful control was needed to remain in flight using this method. Too little demonic energy supplied, and they would not be able to take off at all, or would just plummet to the ground midflight. Too much energy, and they would go shooting through the sky like a bullet.

They came to stop at the top of the cliff the foot of which they were now currently arguing at, and without any warning…Serafall kicked him off.

His memories of his fall were sketchy, but he vaguely recalled high-pitched screaming muffled by the sound of rapidly displaced air, and the surroundings moving past him so fast that they were a complete blur.

Then, pain when he landed on the ground, creating the crater he was now sitting in.

If this was really how all Pure Blood Devils trained to fly, he couldn't imagine how they could have survived so long.

"Well…maybe not all of them, but Sirzechs-chan, Ajuka-chan, Falbium-chan and I all learned how to fly this way!"

"What the hell is wrong with you Maous!?"

The other three seemed quite sane, especially when you compared them to Serafall, but was it possible that all of them had a screw loose somewhere in their heads?

How had the Devils survived this long under their leadership!?

"Well, enough talk! Get back up there and try again!"

"Are you insane!? Actually, don't answer that, I already know the answer! I just somehow survived a 100 meter drop and you want me to do it again!? You trying to kill me!?"

"Eh? But, Ichigo-chan, take a good look at yourself! You're not injured at all, are you?" Serafall exclaimed.

Ichigo blinked and looked down.

It was true. His clothes were tattered as a result of his brief bout with Serafall and the plunge just now, but his body didn't have so much as a scratch on it. Even the pain he had felt when he crashed had been rather light, and was already gone.

"What the hell?"

"Ah, come to think of it, I haven't explained the traits of the Evil Pieces to you yet, have I?"

"Traits…of the Evil Pieces?"

"That's right. You know how each chess piece moves differently on a chess board, right? The Evil Pieces are like that. The Knight Piece grants heightened mobility, which allows Knights to move and attack at high speeds. But because of that, their defenses are low, which makes them highly vulnerable to attacks that manage to connect. Plus, if you take out their legs, their speed drops to a normal level."

Speed fighters…that would basically be how he was in Bankai. Capable of fighting at high speed, but vulnerable to attacks once he stopped moving, as many of his opponents had demonstrated.

The time Byakuya stabbed his Zanpakuto through his foot to stop him from moving and then shooting a hole through his shoulder with Kido came to mind.

"Next is the Bishop Piece. It grants increased ability with magic, so they are capable of using a huge variety of spells, or overspecializing in one category that they attain new heights with it. But of course, if they don't have the energy to use magic, they're no different from average fighters."

Basically, it was like a master of Kido, like Hachi, one of the Vizards, Tessai and Kisuke was.

"Then comes the Rook. Its trait is enhanced strength and defense, making a Rook a powerhouse. But, most of them are pretty slow, so they're especially vulnerable to high speed attacks like from Knights."

Kenpachi in a nutshell. Possessing absurd physical strength, and incredible endurance that prevented his body from taking any damage from all but the strongest attacks, but was incapable of using Shunpo at all. Though, his sheer leg power was enough to make up for that, so maybe he wasn't such a good example.

"Next is the Piece I used on you. The Queen Piece. It combines the traits of the Knight, Bishop and Rook Pieces, which makes the Queen the strongest and most balanced of the Pieces. The Rook's trait is probably why you're not injured, Ichigo-chan!"

Ichigo was immediately reminded of Aizen.

Possessing the physical strength to cut through a Bankai, a mastery of Kido unlike any other, which also enabled him to muster up defenses that were capable of completely negating Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho in Bankai, and so fast that even Ichigo's enhanced speed in Bankai and further enhanced by Hollowfication was easily outmaneuvered.

Was that the standard he was supposed to live up to?

"Last is the Pawn Piece. It doesn't possess any special abilities on its own, but much like how a pawn piece in chess can be promoted into another piece other than the King, a Pawn can use Promotion to gain the traits of the Knight, Bishop, Rook or Queen Piece. However, they can only use Promotion when in enemy territory, or when granted permission by their King."

That…sounded very useful, actually. To be able to switch between different traits to adapt to different opponents…a Pawn who had mastered their power would be very dangerous, no less than a Queen.

And there were 8 of them in just one peerage?

"Also, they set the standard for the other Pieces. Knights and Bishops are worth 3 Pawns, Rooks are worth 5, and Queens are worth 9. So basically, someone who needs to be reincarnated using a Knight or a Bishop Piece can be reincarnated with 3 Pawn Pieces."

So, basically, there could be less than 8 Pawns in one peerage, huh?

"Wait, what about Mutation Pieces?" Ichigo asked, remembering the term that had been used to refer to the Queen Piece that Serafall used on him.

"Oh, those? They're variations of normal Evil Pieces that can reincarnate beings that are worth many times of what a normal Evil Piece can reincarnate. That means you, Ichigo-chan!"

He blinked. He was worth a lot more than 9 of Serafall's Pawns?

Wow, that actually felt pretty gratifying.

As he processed the information about the Evil Pieces, he remembered something.

"Come to think of it, you never explained to me the whole King Piece thing. We're in privacy now, aren't we? What's the deal?"

Like before, the moment he brought up the subject of the King Piece, Serafall froze and her expression became very serious.

"…Ichigo-chan, just concentrate on your training for now. After the spar, I'll tell you everything you need to know. About the darkness that surrounds the Rating Games. But, until then, don't go around talking about the King Piece. You never know who might be listening." She said in a low voice.

He frowned. What was so big about the King Piece that it could make Serafall act like that?

"Well, since you're so against flight training, why don't we do something more fun?"

Ichigo immediately wished that she would stay in that serious mode, because the smile she was now sporting was setting off alarms in his head.

"Something…fun?"

"Yeah! How about we see just what kind of powers you gained from Hell?"

* * *

Grayfia Lucifuge waited patiently for her opponent to arrive.

She was standing on a floating platform, one of many that made up this little artificial dimension that served as one of the Rating Game's many stages.

She had silver eyes and matching long hair that was tied into a twin braids behind her, and two shorter braids at the side of her head.

Befitting her status as Maou Lucifer's Queen and the Head Maid of the Gremory Clan, she was wearing a blue and white French maid outfit, complete with a white headpiece, which also served as her combat uniform, despite how impractical it seemed.

Many people had asked why the Strongest Queen and the wife of a Maou would debase herself by working as a servant, but Grayfia genuinely enjoyed working as a maid. Rather than enjoying a casual life, staying busy like this suited her better, and helped her to focus and her mind sharp so that she could act competently in her capacity as Sirzechs Lucifer's Queen when she was needed.

Like right now.

It had been a huge surprise not just to her, but to all Devils, when she heard that Serafall had chosen her Queen, more so when she learned that it was Kurosaki Ichigo, the one who had broken into Hell and destroyed almost four Circles, and had been lent power by the infernal realm itself to send a sinner down to the Ninth Circle.

Not to mention, he was the one who had resolved one of Japan's greatest crisis when he defeated a traitorous Shinigami whose near conquering of Soul Society had almost caused Takamagahara to spring into action and take him down themselves.

At the very least, if he had a similar level of power after becoming a Devil, she most likely wouldn't stand a chance against him.

He had power that was on the same level as her husband and the other Maous _in their true forms_ after all.

But considering that the entire Underworld was _not_ crumbling from the sheer force of his power, it was safe to say that he was weaker than he had been when he defeated Aizen Sosuke.

How much weaker though, she did not know. Though he no longer had his Shinigami powers, he still possessed his naturally immense reserves, and the powers that Hell had granted him.

At the very least, she was going to assume that he was as strong as she was. Serafall wouldn't settle for anything less.

And the current Leviathan would not have stayed idle for an entire month. She would most certainly be helping him train his new powers.

The incident from a month ago, when a massive explosion rocked the Underworld for miles, came to mind, and she wondered if he had been the one who caused that.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when a magic circle appeared on the ground opposite her.

A magic circle that bore Serafall's personal mark as Maou Leviathan.

A teleportation spell.

Her eyebrow raised when she noticed that the demonic energy flowing through the magic circle was very rough, as though the spell had been cast by a beginner.

In other words, it could not be Serafall, who was a master spell caster.

Her eyes narrowed.

Her opponent had arrived.

A tall figure emerged from the blue light of the magic circle.

The magic circle vanished once its user fully emerged, its purpose complete, revealing Kurosaki Ichigo.

Well, he was certainly easy on the eyes, Grayfia had to admit.

He was tall. Taller than her husband, but not by much. He had shoulder length messy orange hair (which reminded her rather unpleasantly of her husband's Mutated Rook, Surtr Second, though hopefully, this one wasn't as uncouth as the clone of the Norse Fire Giant), his bangs long enough to slightly obscure his brown eyes. He wore a very simple getup, a black jacket over a white shirt, blue jeans and a pair of loafers.

She could tell that he was very well-built, with broad shoulders, an obviously toned body even if it was being concealed by his clothes, and an aura of subtle confidence.

If she wasn't happily married, she wouldn't mind getting some of that.

Her eyes trailed to the simple, yet well-crafted sword sitting in the leather scabbard attached to his waist.

A swordsman, huh? Judging by his rather rough use of the teleportation spell, he was probably new to using magic. Which meant that he would be relying mostly on swordplay.

That was fairly simple. She just had to keep her distance and fire spells at him. That was how she had beaten Okita Souji, despite the speed that was afforded to him as a Knight.

Speed was rather useless if your legs were trapped in a block of ice after all.

Still, it wouldn't be a very fair evaluation if she didn't let him try at all…maybe she should give him a handicap?

She blinked when he bowed politely to her. She had been expecting blank staring at her choice of clothes.

Then again, he had been around Serafall, whose usual outfit was that of a Mahou Shoujo, so he was probably already fairly jaded.

Her opinion of him went up several degrees just for that. He was already more polite than the neanderthals that made up most of her husband's peerage.

They should get along, as the Queens of the two most troublesome Maous. She could give him a few pointers about dealing with his King's antics.

Speaking of the Maous…all four of them should be watching the match from their VIP viewing room right now.

Sirzechs and Serafall were probably arguing over how well the latter's Queen would do.

And they probably weren't the only ones having that discussion.

She glanced over towards the barrier that was separating the Rating Game's grounds from the spectators' stands, which were no doubt filled to the brim.

Once news got out that Serafall Leviathan had gotten a Queen, all Devils had been waiting for this evaluation match. Those who weren't lucky enough to get seats were probably tuning into this match at home, broadcast live by pretty much every news network run by Devils through the cameras that were flying around the grounds.

They would have to try to avoid damaging them. She was very careful with her money and didn't want to have to waste any of it on reimbursement.

[The rank evaluation match for Kurosaki Ichigo-dono, newly reincarnated Queen of Serafall Leviathan-sama will begin shortly. His opponent shall be Grayfia Lucifuge-dono, Queen of Sirzechs Lucifer-sama. Combatants, please standby.]

She tensed herself once the announcement from the MC was broadcasted, and Kurosaki Ichigo took up a stance, placing a hand on the handle of his sword so that he could spring into action and draw it immediately.

How would he play this?

Was he the strategic type who would formulate a plan before making his move?

Or was he a man of action, rushing in immediately and going along with the flow of the battle?

[3…2…1…Begin!]

Grayfia blinked just as the announcer declared the start of the match, and when she opened them, she took an involuntary step back when she found that her opponent had completely filled her field of vision, his Orichalcum sword already in hand.

" _Fast…!"_

Grayfia barely managed to process her opponent's speed before she was forced to lean backwards, barely avoiding the tip of the blade that passed through air uncomfortably close to her eyes.

Seeing Ichigo pull his sword back for another attack, Grayfia acted quickly and conjured a wall of ice between them and moved back as fast as she could with the speed of a Knight.

*SHATTER*

She was stunned to see her wall of ice crumble under a single blow from his left fist, which he had unclenched from the handle of his sword and used to punch the frozen construct between them.

It had been slipshod work by her standards, considering how little time she had to create it, but it was still ice conjured by a Devil who was known to be on the same level as the original Maous.

Adding that to the fact that he had managed to catch her off guard with his speed, something that only Okita Souji, her husband's Knight and acknowledged as the Strongest Knight, had ever been able to do…she gained a new appreciation for the physical enhancements that the Queen Piece afforded.

So, he was making use of the Rook's and Knight's traits that the Queen also possessed?

That made him her direct opposite, being a Queen who relied mostly on the magical enhancement trait that the Bishop Piece possessed.

Though a Queen possessed the traits of the Knight, Bishop and Rook Pieces, there weren't yet any notable Queens who made full use of all three traits.

Queens were basically split into two categories: magic users who had mastered the trait of the Bishop Piece, like her, as well as most other Queens, only occasionally making use of the Knight's speed and the Rook's power and defense, or physical fighters who mastered the traits of the Rook and/or the Knight Piece, rarely using the power of the Bishop, like Ichigo appeared to be.

That…made him the worst possible opponent for her.

If he really was as fast as he appeared, she would be at a disadvantage, because all of her stronger spells had long casting times.

When she said 'long', it was actually time measured in split seconds, but even that brief period was enough for someone as fast as her opponent to close in on her and attack her, forcing her to interrupt the casting and dodge, or risk being cut in two by her opponent's sharp blade combined with his fearsome physical strength.

And as he had demonstrated just now, weak spells, even ones cast with her Ultimate-Class power, would do little against him.

First of all…she had to open up some distance between them, like she had originally planned.

Grayfia fired off a barrage of icicles at his head, aiming to force him to waste a few moments to cut them down.

She didn't have the time to be surprised when he simply weaved through them with nothing but sheer speed and footwork, for she was already casting another, stronger spell.

The platform they were standing on was flash frozen in an instant, turning its smooth surface into a rough, icicle-covered terrain of absolute zero.

Through the clear ice, Grayfia could make out Ichigo standing completely still among the icicles.

Not by his own will, of course.

His feet, having been in contact with the platform when Grayfia frozen it solid, were now trapped inside two icicles that had grown around them, extending up to his thighs.

The ice wasn't that thick, but it was filled with a good amount of her demonic energy. Even with his strength as a Rook and a sword of Orichalcum, he won't be able to break through the ice immediately.

Enough time for her to cast one of her strongest spells and end this.

But, before she could even begin formulating the spell, Ichigo suddenly raised his blade and then turned it over in his hands so that the blade was pointing at the ground.

She blinked.

What was he doing?

Her eyes widened when the blade gained a black hue, crackling with demonic energy.

"Is he…!?"

Ichigo slammed his blade into the ground, easily breaking through the frozen surface.

The black demonic energy surged forth from the blade and into the floating platform.

For a moment, all was silent.

Then, veins of black surged through the ground, spreading out from the spot where Ichigo had slammed his blade into, causing cracks to appear in their wake, encompassing the entire surface of the platform, visible beneath the ice

The entire platform shattered, taking the frozen terrain that Grayfia had created with it.

Having lost her foothold suddenly, Grayfia's casting was interrupted and she quickly expanded her wings to take flight before she fell.

Now free from the ice, Ichigo did the same.

He raised his sword, and once again the silver color of the blade turned black.

Grayfia's instincts immediately started screaming at her.

She was in danger. She was in danger there.

She needed to move!

She obeyed her instincts and flew aside, just as Ichigo swung down his blade, releasing a large vertical wave of pitch black.

It sailed past her head, managing to cut off a few strands of her silver hair.

What in the name of the Nine Circles of Hell was that?

It…did not appear to be a spell. Was it just a mass of demonic energy?

Loud noises of something, or somethings, breaking drew her attention and caused her to turn around.

The black wave sliced right through several floating platforms in its path like butter before slamming into the barrier around the grounds with so much force that the barrier flashed brightly and let out a groaning sound as its defensive capabilities were forced to its maximum capacity in an instant, its caster needing to throw an exponentially greater amount of demonic energy to maintain it.

Grayfia grew alarmed when a crack appeared in the barrier, and it looked like the deadly wave of demonic energy was about to break through, when the barrier turned red, suddenly stopped giving way to Ichigo's attack, and pushed back against it, causing the black wave to dissipate.

It appeared that her husband had stepped in to reinforce the barrier himself.

If it was the Crimson Lucifer himself maintaining the barrier, then they shouldn't have to worry no matter how wild they ran in here.

In that case…

Grayfia immediately glided through the air, opening up as much distance between them as she could.

She turned her head back to judge how far she would have to go, but paused when she saw that Ichigo was falling behind her.

Ah, so that was it. Masterful flying required fine control over demonic energy. He certainly had an impressive amount, probably dwarfing her own reserves, but it was because of that that he had trouble controlling it. So his flying, much like his teleportation spell, was rough and unrefined.

He wouldn't be able to keep up.

But…it was a different story if he decided to give up on flying and use the floating platforms to reach her instead.

They were spread out fairly wide apart, but she had no doubt that he would have no trouble jumping from one to another, judging by the footwork she had seen from him so far.

She would not be underestimating him anymore. Best to take away as many advantages as she could.

She raised a hand, and a massive icicle, sharp tip pointed downwards, appeared above each of the platforms within a 300 meter radius of her.

Lowering her hand in a gesture, she mentally commanded all of the icicles to fall at once.

With the full weight of the icicles being concentrated at the tip of the icy constructs that slammed into the center of the platforms, they crumbled in an instant, sending tons of rubble falling down to the lowest level of the grounds with a loud crash.

Grayfia felt a small surge of satisfaction when she saw her opponent's eyes narrow.

Evidently, he had been planning exactly what she had suspected.

With the only way he could keep up with her flying speed cut off, this would be an easy victory for her as long as she kept her distance.

Still, she couldn't help but worry.

Was this really all that he was capable of?

She didn't think so. Newly reincarnated though he may be, he was still someone Serafall Leviathan had personally chosen.

That was immediately proven when she had to swerve hard in the air to avoid being struck by another one of his black demonic energy waves.

Even with his mobility limited, he was still very much a threat.

She had to defeat him fast.

And she knew how.

She raised a hand towards him, which immediately put him on guard.

That was fine. Even if he was on guard, he wouldn't be able to do much against this.

Dozens of magic circles appeared around him, surrounding and trapping him in a perfect sphere.

Grayfia clenched her hand into a fist, activating all of the magic circles at once.

Each one started firing off icicles at Ichigo rapidly. There was no way for him to escape from that.

Instead of trying futilely to dodge like she had expected, Ichigo instead started swinging his sword in wide arcs, using the speed of a Knight to move his body along with each swing to shatter as many icicles as he could.

Appearing as a mere blur to even Grayfia's trained eyes, each icicle that neared him shattered into tiny bits of frost.

Impressive, being able to keep his cool under such circumstances. Grayfia's respect for her opponent just seemed to keep rising.

However, he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. His body would soon tire, and when that inevitably happened…

An icicle that his swings had just barely missed crashed into his legs, causing a fine layer of frost to spread over the limb.

Surprised, Ichigo slowed down, only just a little, barely perceivable to all but the most trained eyes, to flex the limb and shatter the thin ice, before resuming his defense.

But, that was fine. That tiny, momentary drop in his speed would result in even more misses.

One slammed into his left arm, another slammed into his torso, and while he easily shattered the ice, each moment taken to do so resulted in more and more mistakes, until finally…

"Hrmph!?"

Grayfia heard her opponent let out a loud grunt of surprise, and drop rapidly from the sky, a layer of ice now coating one of his wings.

That was it. What she had been aiming for. With the weight of the ice added to one of his wings, his balance in the air would be completely destroyed, causing him to fall.

Even if he had the defensive power of a Rook, a fall from this height would still hurt very, very much.

It was ov-

Something was wrong.

Just as soon as she was sure it was over, the surroundings seemed to grow a little darker.

She could feel something in the air.

Dark.

Cold.

Old.

Powerful.

Her instincts as a Devil immediately began to react.

It was not telling her she was in danger like before. Rather, it was telling her to…submit and prostrate herself?

Her eyes locked onto Ichigo.

The air around him seemed to have grown the darkest.

So, he was the source.

Then, she noticed something.

He was not falling anymore.

In fact, he appeared to be standing on air.

No, that wasn't it.

He was standing on…a chain?

It was connected to two floating platforms that were rather far apart, pulled taut so that Ichigo could stand on it with no problem.

But, where did it come from? That was definitely not a part of the original stage.

Ichigo suddenly raised his sword that had once again turned black.

Grayfia immediately started flying around at high speed, making sure to make as many random and sharp turns as possible.

Even he would have a hard time aiming at her if she stayed on the move.

Ichigo swung his sword in her direction, and she expected a black wave to pass through spot that she had already vacated, but…

There was no black wave.

Instead, a black rift had opened up in front of Ichigo, in the same path that his sword had travelled.

She blinked.

What was that?

She was stunned when five black chains suddenly emerged from the rift, extending and surging towards her with incredible speed.

But, she was moving just as fast, and as long as she didn't slow down, she could stay out of reach, and cast her next spell.

Then the chains split up, one moving to cut her off. She turned sharply to the side, and was immediately met by another. She began to turn again, only to have to twist her body when a chain almost struck her head.

Unfortunately, those three chains had forced her to hover in the same spot long enough for the remaining two to wrap around her ankles.

The first three chains circled back around, two wrapping one wrist each, and the last wrapping around her waist.

She was caught.

She immediately tried to struggle out of them, utilizing her rarely used Rook physical strength, but they refused to budge.

She took a good look at the chains binding her, and froze.

She recognized them.

They weren't unique in design. They looked like ordinary chains.

However, the aura they were giving off told her exactly what they were.

" _These are…Hell's Chains!?"_

She could only stare in shock at the legendarily powerful chains meant to bind the souls of all sinners in Creation to the infernal realm where they were eternally condemned.

A sudden tug on the chains caused her to drop in altitude as the sectioned lengths of metal pulled her with them.

Ichigo had taken hold of the chains and was now using them to draw her towards him.

She tried to pull away, but she was not accustomed to using the physical strength of a Rook, unable to overcome her opponent's own power, as embarrassing as it was for an experienced centuries-old Devil like her to admit.

Then there was the fact that Hell's Chains could not be broken by any means other than raw destructive power that Grayfia did not possess.

And when she caught sight of her opponent's blade once again raised and glowing with dark light, she knew she was in trouble.

However, there was still one thing she could do.

In order to brace against the impending attack, Grayfia did the only thing she could do in her position: conjuring as much ice as possible in front of her to take the brunt of the blow.

As Ichigo swung his blade and her vision was engulfed by pitch black, Grayfia could only hope that the massive volume of ice she had generated would be sufficient.

* * *

"T-That is not possible! How could this be!?"

"For Hell's Chains to be used in such a manner…"

Sirzechs Lucifer, formerly Sirzechs Gremory, watched in amusement as the members of the council started to panic and murmur amongst themselves.

The current Yondai Maous and the Devils' council were seated in the VIP viewing room, watching the match.

Sirzechs found himself quite impressed with Kurosaki Ichigo's performance so far.

Though he was newly reincarnated, he was holding his own against Grayfia, who possessed centuries of experience over him, and was even pressing her.

Ajuka and Falbium, who was wide awake for once, seemed interested as well.

Serafall had a smug smile on her face as she watched her new Queen press the Strongest Queen, directing it towards Sirzechs, who simply ignored her.

Grayfia would not go down from just that much.

He was proven right when Grayfia, with precision and technique that spoke of centuries of practice, knocked Ichigo out of the sky by freezing his wing.

That was when things started to get very interesting.

Kurosaki Ichigo summoned Hell's Chains to be used as a foothold, and then to trap her.

It was at the sight of that that the councilmen, who had been watching the match with expressions of disdainful disinterest up until then, suddenly fell into a panic.

It was a natural response, he supposed.

After all, Hell's Chains weren't supposed to be used in such a fashion.

Hell's Chains had one primary function: to bind the souls of sinners to Hell, preventing them from escaping their eternal damnation.

And that was all they were meant to do.

They could not be used in any other fashion.

Even the Maous, who could exert some form of control over them because of their 'contract' with the sentient infernal realm, could not direct them to do anything else apart from their primary function.

That was why it was such a shock that Kurosaki Ichigo was able to use them seemingly without restraint.

He wondered if the boy even knew just what a ridiculous feat he was accomplishing at the moment.

"T-There is no precedence for this…"

"Oh? That isn't true, is it?" Sirzechs decided to cut in when he heard one of the councilmen mutter.

All of the councilmen turned to look at him, pale-faced and rather terrified.

"S-Sirzechs-sama?"

"There was one Devil, wasn't there? A Devil who was said to be able to do what Ichigo-kun is doing now."

"T-That is…!"

If possible, their faces turned even paler.

Probably unbeknownst to Ichigo, there was a third reason why the council was scared of him.

It was because Hell had chosen to give him its power of its own accord, granting him the ability to summon Hell's Chains, infuse Hellfire into his attack, and even control the Kushanada, Hell's Keepers who barely listened to the Maous.

Even the original Maous and the current Maous could not claim to have received the same honor.

However, there was said to have been one Devil who was able to all of that, and so much more.

Hell itself was said to have bent to his whim.

A Devil who was said to have singlehandedly shaped Hell into what it was today.

Back during the Dawn of Creation, Hell, in its infancy, was a wild realm fresh from Genesis, absolutely inhospitable to any and all things due to its powerful miasma, and was thus designated as the destination of the souls of all of the sinners in Creation upon death.

However, Hell was literally nothing more than empty space at the time, and the souls of sinners were allowed to run rampant freely within its boundaries.

Soon, with so many sinners flooding in and desperate to return to life, Hell was on the verge of breaking down and flooding into the rest of the realms in Creation.

Then, _he_ appeared.

By himself, he completely reshaped Hell, starting by crushing the sinners, creating the Nine Circles as the punishing grounds for them, creating Hell's Chains to ensure that they could never escape from Hell's hold, and created the Kushanada as their Keepers.

Then, to oppose God and his Heavenly Host and maintain Creation's balance, he created and granted power to the Devils who would become the ancestors of the 72 Pillars and other Clans, as well as converting a section of Hell into a hospitable place where Devils could live and thrive, naming it the Underworld.

Subsequently, when Lucifer and his followers failed in their rebellion against the Biblical God, and were subsequently cast down into Hell as Devils, he was the one who allowed Lucifer, Leviathan, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Belphegor and Mammon to take positions that possessed identical status to his own, despite his superior power.

Even then, he was the only one capable of manipulating Hell as he pleased, something that the other Maous only wished they could do.

That was the original Devil, who was to Devils what God was to Angels.

Satan himself.

At least, that was how the legend went.

Sirzechs had never met the legendary First Devil himself. Few Devils alive today had. He had mysteriously vanished not long after he had finished shaping Hell.

But, the oldest Devils who had lived under his short reign and were still alive to this day worshipped him with the same fervor that Angels worshipped their Lord and Creator, and thus, the rest of their kin followed suit, taking those legends as truth.

It was said that the Fallen Angels, who had taken over a part of the Underworld, and the various Gods of the afterlife from various pantheons, who also lived in separate levels of Hell below even the Underworld after forming their own pacts with the sentient realm, were unable to gain a foothold in the infernal realm until after the original Devil's disappearance.

That was just how great Satan's power was said to be.

A being that was like the physical manifestation of the infernal realm itself.

What the council feared was that Kurosaki Ichigo possessed the same powers as the First and Strongest Devil himself.

With that power…he could easily reshape not only their society, but Hell itself to his liking.

And now…it appeared that their fears might have come true.

What this meant for the Underworld, even Sirzechs himself wondered.

* * *

It burned.

Her skin felt like it had been scorched off. That was how much pain Grayfia was currently experiencing.

The ice she had generated had been useless. The black wave tore right through it and struck her with full force.

However, perhaps it was because he was sure that she had taken the full brunt of his attack that the Hell's Chains holding her in place seemed to slacken their hold on her limbs and waist, allowing her to twist and free herself from them.

She burst out of the black torrent and was able to assess herself now that she could see.

Her clothes were torn and seared in several places, leaving sizeable holes through which burnt patches of her skin could be seen.

He held back. That much she was sure of. If he hadn't, there was no way she would have gotten away with only a few burns.

That's right. This was just a regulated match. It wasn't a battle to the death.

However, the battle had become so intense in just a few seconds that she had forgotten that fact.

She took a deep breath to calm down and prepared for battle again.

Once her opponent noticed that she was still conscious, he would surely strike again…

…Or not?

Grayfia blinked when she saw her opponent deliberate trying to avoid looking at her, a red hue visible on his cheeks.

"Um…do you need a moment to cover up?" Ichigo asked while resolutely facing his head to the side.

She blinked again, but understood when she looked down at herself.

One of the larger tears on her clothes happened to be right where her rather voluptuous bosom was, revealing them for the world to see.

She blushed lightly and silently fumed at the thought of having accidently flashed her entire race.

"Yes, that would be very much appreciated." She replied to her opponent.

With a snap of her fingers, a magic circle appeared in front of her exposed mammaries, and in an instant, her damaged clothes were replaced by a fresh set that she kept on standby just in case.

"Shall we continue?" Grayfia asked while her mind raced.

She hated to admit it, but her opponent was strong.

She was holding back of course. She had yet to use even 10% of her full power. She had never needed to in any of these evaluation matches, except in one, against her husband's Mutated Rook, Surtr Second.

There was a reason why the clone of the Norse Fire Giant was called the Strongest Rook.

She should have known that someone whose reincarnation required a Mutated Queen Piece belonging to a Maou would be this strong.

She had underestimated him greatly.

If this continued, she was going to lose.

She could not allow that to happen. She was Sirzechs Lucifer's Queen. She could not allow such a disgrace to occur in her King's name.

Her own personal pride as a senior Queen had nothing to do with the matter. Nope. Nothing at all.

The only way she could ensure a victory…was to use her full power.

While still inferior to the four Super Devils who were the current Maous, she was one of the strongest of the vaunted Ultimate-Class Devil, possessing power that could rival any of the original Maous bar the near mythical Satan himself. An attack with her full power behind it was the type that necessitated the redrawing of world maps.

How long had it been since she last used her full power?

As far as she could remember, it was during the Civil War centuries ago.

She wasn't sure how well she would be able to control it after so long, but she was sure her opponent would be able to survive no matter what she threw at him.

She took another deep breath, and drew on the power that had been lying dormant inside of her for so long.

The world began to tremble, shaking under the force of her full might she was now letting loose.

The ribbons tying her hair tore, allowing the silver locks to fall to their full length.

A silver aura manifested around the outline of her body, and her eyes began to glow with power.

The air around her became slightly distorted, out of sync with the rest of the world as the sheer force of her presence began to distort her local spacetime.

However, the most striking change would definitely be her wings. They had multiplied from a single pair to five pairs, expanding to become much larger than before.

There were multiple ways to determine how powerful a Devil was, but the easiest way was to simply count their wings.

Ordinary Devils with ordinary power were born with a single pair.

Obtaining the second pair required Devils to cross a certain threshold of power, decisively above that of ordinary Devils who possessed only one pair.

Naturally, not all Devils could do it. If they did not possess the potential, no matter how hard they trained, they were unlikely to ever cross the threshold.

The third pair required the surpassing of yet another, even higher threshold, as did the fourth pair, and then the fifth.

Thus, the number of pairs of wings that a Devil possessed was a clear indicator of their power, because a Devil who possessed two pairs would always be stronger in terms of raw power than a Devil with one pair.

It was the same between a Devil with three pairs and a Devil with two pairs, and between a Devil with four pairs and a Devil with three pairs, and so on.

Without exception, every Devil who had ever been deemed Ultimate-Class in power possessed more than one pair of wings.

On a side note, children born between parents possessing multiple pairs of wings would find themselves obtaining their second pair far more easily than others, because they would be born with a greater amount of power and potential than other Devils.

Some rare cases were known to have been born with two pairs of wings.

The Devils who had managed to develop five pairs of wings were only a small handful. Five pairs were the same number of pairs of wings that the original Maous possessed, again, with the exception of Satan himself. Therefore, developing five pairs required both Maou-level potential to even have a chance of obtaining five pairs, as well as intense, hellish training that could make even the most stoic Devil blanch.

Grayfia was one of the small handful. Born with immense potential, and after training endlessly for years, she had managed to develop five pairs of wings.

She would still need to hold back, of course.

She didn't want to accidently overpower the barrier and destroy this artificial dimension after all.

Grayfia looked at her opponent, whose face was set in a hard expression.

"So, this is your true form?" Ichigo asked.

Grayfia nodded.

"That is correct. I advise you to focus everything on defending. Otherwise, I cannot guarantee that you will survive." Grayfia spoke with a voice filled with power, causing the air in front of her to shimmer.

A magic circle appeared in front of each of her wings, each preparing a spell of the highest level of their attributes.

Everyone always assumed that she was an ice magic user because she had once fought with Serafall over the position of Leviathan, but that was a terrible misapprehension.

She did not limit herself to a single element like Serafall did, and while her proficiency over them could not compare to Serafall's nearly godlike mastery over ice, they were still at a level that only the greatest magic users of the world could ever hope to possess.

And now, with ten spells of the highest level, backed by more power than she had used in centuries…

"Haa…well, Serafall did order me to do this, so I suppose this is as good a time as any…"

Grayfia frowned when she heard Ichigo mutter to himself and sheath his sword.

Was he…not going to defend himself?

She was holding back enough not to outright kill him, but the wounds he would receive would be grievous at best, and at worst, critical.

Her eyes widened when she felt his power rapidly rising.

Impossible…he had been holding back as well!?

The shaking of the entire area increased as his own full power came to the surface. A pitch black aura appeared his body, and just like in her case, the air around him distorted as the local spacetime was warped by sheer power.

She could only watch, utterly stunned, as a second pair of bat-like wings sprouted from Ichigo's back…followed by a third, and then a fourth, and then a _fifth_.

At that point, the power he was releasing was already matching hers.

How was this possible!? How could a newly reincarnated Devil possess this much power!?

No, she already knew that he had at least this much power. She simply didn't think he would be able to tap into it in the span of just one month.

Just what in the name of Satan did Serafall teach him!?

This was bad. He had already been overpowering her when both of them were holding back. Now that they were releasing their full power, the same thing would surely happen agai-

Just as Grayfia thought that Ichigo's power could go no higher, she suddenly felt as though a massive ocean had appeared in the sky above her, the incredible pressure threatening to utterly crush her.

She stared at Ichigo with a mixture of awe and fear.

And then…a sixth pair of wings sprouted from his back.

Grayfia almost fainted from shock right there and then.

The highest level that even the most talented and dedicated Devil could reach was the same level as her: Maou-level, signified by five pairs of wings.

However, there was still one more level above even five pairs.

Six pairs.

That was initially a fabled number, the number of pairs of wings that Satan himself was said to have possessed, the absolute proof that his power was superior to the other Maous.

However, few had ever seen Satan, much less the number of wings he had, so it had been thought to be a mere myth.

Until a few centuries ago, where not one, but five Devils were born with six pairs of wings, all in the same generation.

Sirzechs Gremory, Serafall Sitri, Ajuka Astaroth, Falbium Glasya-Labolas, the current Yondai Maous, and Rizevim Livan Lucifer, the son of the original Lucifer.

It was completely unprecedented, and once they grew up, it was clear that each and every single one of them possessed power that even the original Maous could only dream of.

They could not be ordinary Devils, and were thus dubbed Super Devils.

There had never been any such cases before, and since then.

Until now.

As she watched the barrier that her husband was personally maintaining begin to collapse, and the entire artificial dimension begin to tear itself apart at its metaphysical seams, she was sure.

Kurosaki Ichigo…was also a Super Devil.

The new Super Devil lifted his head to look right into Grayfia's eyes, revealing his own glowing blood red orbs, surrounded by a sea of black.

Grayfia's world turned to black, and she knew no more.

That day would forever be remembered by Devils as the day that Grayfia Lucifuge's title of the Strongest Queen was usurped from her, by the new Strongest Queen.

The Sixth Super Devil, the First Reincarnated Super Devil, the Second Coming of Satan, the newest Ultimate-Class Devil, Queen of Serafall Leviathan, Kurosaki Ichigo.

* * *

And that's all for now.

So, this is how Ichigo's Hell-based abilities work. When Hell gave him power, it opened a pathway between him and the infernal realm. However, when Ichigo lost his powers, the pathway shut to almost a complete close. When he was reincarnated into a Devil, it reopened, far greater than before, because a Devil's body is far better suited to using Hell's power. Essentially, Ichigo has something like an internal Hell Gate, which allows him to draw on the powers that Hell granted him.

And unfortunately, Getsuga Tensho is unavailable to him. Why? Duh, because he doesn't have a Zanpakuto or a Fullbring. However, this may change later.

And yes, Ichigo's new abilities are indeed the same as Satan's. More on this in later chapters.

For those who are wondering, I still don't have Ichigo's full peerage planned out yet. However, his two Bishops and a Knight are already set. They are canon DxD characters, but are unlikely to make an appearance until near the end of the first book.

Next, I need your help deciding what to write for the next chapter. It can either be about Ichigo's encounter with Fallen Angels and/or members of the Church, or about Serafall's duties as the Maou in charge of foreign diplomatic relations.

That's all for now. As always, please read and review.


	3. Life 2: The Peaceful Ideal

Welcome back to Hellfire!

You guys might have already noticed in the latest chapters of my other stories that I no longer reply to reviews in chapters.

This is because I don't want to inflate the word count and give you readers less content than you were expecting.

So, unless it's a review that I feel that I must reply to, you will no longer see any responses outside of PMs.

With that out of the way, on with the story!

* * *

Past

Ichigo drank the last of the broth in his bowl of ramen, setting the bowl back down on the counter once every last drop had vanished down his throat.

He was sitting in a ramen bar in a quaint little town just a few bus stops away from Tokyo. It was called Kuou, he believed.

It wasn't the healthiest of lunches, but it was cheap and delicious, which was good enough for him.

He could worry about eating more healthily once he had a stable income.

He set down exact change for his meal next to the now empty bowl and walked out of the bar, hefting his backpack over his shoulder.

He wasn't even sure why he had come to this little town. He just suddenly felt like getting off at that particular bus stop.

It really had nothing of interest. No particularly important landmarks, no outstandingly reviewed restaurants or hotels that was still affordable for him, and no university for him to attend.

It was about as ordinary as Karakura was before it became the hotspot for supernatural occurrences.

But, it had its appeal, in a cozy, homey sort of way, like Karakura did for him, before…

Ichigo increased his pace, determined to keep his mind off of the past. He hadn't left behind everything he knew just so that he could waddle in self-pity for the entire journey.

He probably should have been paying more attention to where he was going.

"Oof!"

"Kyaa!"

Ichigo grunted when he bumped into something, or rather, someone, who let out a cry at the same time.

The former Substitute Shinigami looked down, and saw a young woman, probably just a few years older than him, sitting on the pavement, bags of groceries in her hands, though some of their contents had been spilled.

He put 2 and 2 together and immediately went forward to help her.

"Oh damn…sorry about that, I should have looked where I was going." Ichigo apologized as he helped her pick up her spilled groceries and deposit them back into her bags before extending a hand to help her up.

"It's no problem…I should have been doing the same. You're…not from around here, are you?" The woman asked as she pulled herself up to her feet with his help.

"No…you know everyone in this town?"

"It's a small town after all. Everybody knows everybody. I'm Hyoudo Kasumi, a proud longtime resident of this town. Pleased to meet you." The woman introduced herself, extending her hand for a shake.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, travelling around Japan at the moment. Nice to meet you too." Ichigo returned the gesture.

"A traveler, huh? What brings you to our boring little town?"

"Not much really. Just felt like getting off at the bus stop for no particular reason."

"Just going where the wind takes you, huh? That's not a bad way to travel. How about you help me with these, and I make you a cup of tea?" Kasumi asked with a grin, gesturing towards her bags.

"…Sure, why not? Least I could do for knocking you over." Ichigo assented, taking the bags from her while adjusting his own backpack so that it wouldn't fall off.

They started walking, with Kasumi leading the way, presumably to her house.

"So, Ichigo, if you don't mind me asking, about your hair, is it…you know?"

"No need to feel bad. You're the first to actually ask rather than just automatically assume. The answer is no. My hair color is completely natural, hard as it is to believe. My mother's half-German, so I got it from her."

They continued making small talk all the way until they had reached her house, a cozy-looking two story building.

And as they did, Ichigo couldn't help but feel like this woman would be inexorably tied to his fate from now on.

* * *

It was the next morning that Ichigo set out from the town of Kuou.

Kasumi, and her husband, Hyoudo Daigo, who had been every bit as friendly as his wife, had let him join them for dinner and stay overnight in one of their empty guestrooms, sparing him the need to look for a cheap motel to stay in, but he didn't want to take advantage of their hospitality, and took off after a heartfelt goodbye.

He had only known them for a day, yet he already felt like they were as close friends as Chad and the others had been.

It was a good feeling after all, having friends.

Ichigo paused in his walk to the bus stop when he came across a church not too far from the town.

During their dinner the night before, the Hyoudo couple had revealed their childbearing woes to him.

They had been trying for years to have a child, and finally succeeded in conceiving three years back, in their third year of marriage.

However, fate was not kind to them.

Kasumi was born with a genetic condition that made it not only difficult for her ovum to be fertilized, but also unlikely for the fetus to survive the entire gestation period without exceptionally meticulous care.

They had not known this beforehand, and she miscarried in her fourth month of pregnancy, much to their sorrow.

Two years later, just last year, they were given another chance to have a child, and this time, they went out of their way to make sure that they gave their unborn child every chance of survival they could give him.

But, once more, Fate drew the short straw for them, and this one was lost in the sixth month.

Furthermore, their doctor had informed them that even if their child were to survive the gestation period all the way to the date of birth, the chances of surviving the childbirth were 50% at best, for both the child and for Kasumi.

That was when they had decided to give up on having children, and adjust their lifestyles.

However, Ichigo could see it deep in their eyes.

They had not yet fully given up on having a child, no matter how small the chances, or how great the risks were.

Ichigo was not a religious person, despite having firsthand experience with the afterlife. He wasn't even a Christian.

But, the two had been so kind to him, a complete stranger.

The least he could do to repay them was offer a prayer for them.

So, he stepped inside the church, went straight up to the altar, lit a candle in their names, and clasped his hands together in prayer.

" _Hey, God. I'm not one of your followers. To be honest, even after finding out about Soul Society, I'm still not so sure that I believe in an almighty higher being. But, if you are real, then…please, help those two out, will you? Those two have to be some of the kindest humans around. If anyone deserves a little bundle of joy, it's them. That's really all I have to say. If you can hear me…"_

"Amen." Ichigo finished as he unclasped his hands.

He stared at the altar for a while, not sure if there really was a God out there, or if he had really heard him.

"I'm sure the Lord heard your prayer."

Ichigo blinked and turned to look at the newcomer.

He was a light brown-haired man in his mid-to late 20s, the same as Kasumi and Daigo, dressed in priest robes, smiling at him.

"I'm sorry?"

"I couldn't help but notice you standing here. Everyone in this town knows everyone, and I don't know you. Plus, you really don't look like the praying sort, if you don't mind me saying. But, if your prayer was really heartfelt, I'm sure the Lord heard it." The priest said.

"…Even if I'm not a follower?"

"All of us have different beliefs. I believe that the Lord loves all of us, whether _we_ believe in Him or not."

"Thanks…"

"Oh, where are my manners? Shidou Touji, the head of this congregation, as small as it is." The priest introduced himself.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, traveller, and hoping that you're right." Ichigo said as he felt a weird twinge in his chest.

What was with this town? He kept meeting people he just couldn't help but think would be important to him somehow.

* * *

It was a few days later that Ichigo began to near Kyoto, where Yoruichi had said that her real estate agent friend was based.

He wasn't looking to settle down anywhere just yet though. He just wanted to see the city that was once the capital of Japan.

He decided to take a more scenic route than the train, instead walking from a nearby town to the ancient capital.

That may have not been such a good idea, considering the distance.

It had taken the better part of the day, and he could only barely make out the city lights in the distance, standing out against pitch black of the night sky.

And even if he made it, would he be able to find a place to stay at this time of night? From his experience from travelling around Japan, the cheap places were unlikely to keep their reception desks open this late at night, even though they were technically supposed to.

Maybe it was different in big cities, where vacationers often visited at all times of the day.

He could only hope. He really didn't want to have to sleep on a park bench for the night or something.

It was along the path to the city that Ichigo paused, having come across a long flight of stairs built into the side of a small hill, leading up through a series of Torii gates to what was presumably a shrine.

Why was there a shrine out in the middle of nowhere like this?

But, it might be a good opportunity.

Ichigo estimated he was still a two hour's walk away from the city at the minimum, and his legs were already aching from almost non-stop movement since morning, only stopping to consume his rations for lunch and dinner.

Plus, the air smelt like it was about to rain.

If he couldn't find a place to stay in the city, he would have to spend the night out in the rain, which definitely wouldn't be good for his human body.

Staying the night in the shrine would definitely be the better option, but he would only be able to definitely stay if it was abandoned, and in good condition despite that. If it was still in use, it would depend on the head priest's or miko's decision whether or not to shelter him.

He weighed the pros and cons of the two options, and started climbing the stairs.

Whether he went to the city now or a few minutes later wouldn't really make any difference. He still needed at least two hours to walk to the city, and it would certainly start raining before then.

On the other hand, if the shrine was abandoned yet in good condition, or the head priest or miko was benevolent enough to let him stay, he wouldn't have to worry.

His lower limbs ached and protested as they now had to work against gravity, but he eventually reached the top and took a gander at the modest shrine that was built atop the hill.

It was well maintained, looking almost brand new except for some spots where the wooden structure had been worn away by time and weather.

Combining that with the light coming from inside the building, it was safe to say that it wasn't abandoned.

Hoping that luck would be on his side this evening, Ichigo walked up to the sliding doors of the main building and knocked gently on the wooden frame.

The shuffling and muffled voices that he could vaguely hear from the other side stopped, probably out of confusion that someone was visiting their shrine this late at night, but soon, footsteps began to approach the door, which slid open with a small creaking sound.

Two people stood on the other side of the door.

The first was a beautiful Japanese woman, probably the same age as Kasumi, or slightly older, with long black hair, hazel eyes and a well-endowed body, dressed in the traditional clothes of a miko.

The second was an imposing man with Western features in his 30s, with short black hair, a matching beard, purple eyes, possessing impressive musculature, and standing taller than even Chad. He was dressed in a simple yukata, likely traditional sleepwear.

The former was looking at him with a gentle, albeit confused expression on her face, while the latter was staring down at him with a wary look, which was understandable, considering that he was a stranger that had popped up on the doorstep of their slightly out of the way shrine in the middle of the night.

But, Ichigo was experiencing a familiar twinge in his chest, much like when he had met Kasumi, Daigo and Touji.

Five times in less than a week? What the hell was going on?

"And who might you be, young man?" The woman asked him.

"Just a traveler, seeking refuge from the coming rain. Might you be so kind as to allow me to stay the night?" Ichigo asked, keeping his tone polite.

The man's face hardened in suspicion, and he opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was, it never came, because the woman cut him off.

"Of course. This shrine will never turn away someone who is in need of help. Please, come in." The woman smiled and stepped aside, pushing against the man to force him to do the same, beckoning him inside.

Ichigo blinked, momentarily stunned at how easy that had been, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The inside of the shrine was about as he expected, looking relatively simple with an altar built to worship whatever Shinto deity was enshrined here.

There were sliding doors on the left and right walls, which presumably led to the other parts of the shrine, probably storage and living quarters.

It was simple, but…how should he describe it…warm?

"It is a pleasure to meet you, young man. I am Himejima Shuri, the head priestess of our humble shrine." The woman smiled as she introduced herself.

Then, she gently nudged the man with her elbow to prompt him to do the same.

"…Baraqiel, a friend of Shuri's." The man said in a curt tone.

That…was a really odd name, though Ichigo chose not to comment on that.

Though, the way he was standing closely to Shuri and the protective gleam in his eyes made Ichigo think that there was a lot more to their relationship than just that though.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, travelling around Japan at the moment. Thank you for allowing me to stay the night." He said, expressing his gratitude by bowing to them.

It was because of that that he had missed the momentarily shocked look on Baraqiel's face.

"Welcome to our shrine, Ichigo-kun. Please, come this way. I will show you to a guestroom." Shuri said with a smile on her face, walking through the door on the left wall.

As he followed her, he wondered how these two would factor into his life.

* * *

Present

Ichigo was starting to get tired of all the stares. Just a little.

It had been a week since his ranking battle with Grayfia, and the stares being directed his way as a result of said fight had yet to die down in the slightest.

He supposed it was to be expected, considering that he had directly manipulated Hell's Chains into doing something aside from their sole directive, a feat that apparently only the Original Devil himself had ever accomplished.

He already heard a lot of Devils calling him the Second Coming of Satan, or the First Reincarnated Super Devil, and other ostentatious names like that.

Apparently, it was almost unheard of for even Pure Blood Devils to have six pairs of wings.

In fact, the only Devils who did have six pairs were the current Yondai Maous, and the son of the original Lucifer, who was currently missing.

So, lucky him, he was special, again.

Currently, the Devils who had watched, or at least heard of the match, which was pretty much the entire population, were torn between awe at his power, joy that their first king had seemingly returned, fear for the same reason, and outrage that a Reincarnated Devil was the one who bore the power of Satan himself, an opinion that was mostly reserved for the more pompous Pure Blood High-Class Devils.

Serafall had told him that the Devils' council wasn't sure what to do about him, aside from granting him his rightfully earned title of Ultimate-Class.

They weren't sure whether to celebrate the return of their forefather's power, or to demand that he somehow surrender it, because _obviously_ , a Reincarnated Devil wouldn't have any idea what to do with that kind of power.

There was an awful lot of eye rolling to go along with that, not that Ichigo blamed her.

He was fairly certain he would be far more productive in the use of Satan's power than a bunch of rigid, power hungry old farts that reminded him unpleasantly of a certain other council of rigid, power hungry old farts that would remain unnamed.

With all the unwanted attention being directed at him, he was glad when Serafall told him that he would likely be cooped up in her territory for a while, learning everything that Serafall had not had the opportunity to teach him in the month between his reincarnation and the match against Grayfia.

Speaking of the silver-haired wife/maid/Queen of Sirzechs Lucifer, she wasn't actually wounded by Ichigo when he brought out his full power, mainly because he hadn't actually done anything other than look straight into her eyes.

Somehow, that had completely knocked her out cold, though she quickly regained consciousness a few hours later, none the worse for wear than she had been before they had used their full power.

Thankfully, she didn't hold a grudge against him for defeating her pretty much one-sidedly, or for usurping her title of Strongest Queen, admonishing herself for not taking him seriously from the beginning.

When she heard that Serafall was going to be teaching him, she had volunteered her services, wanting to help her fellow Queen get settled into their society.

Which was where they found themselves now, in the library of Serafall's mansion, almost up to their eyeballs in what were apparently texts of essential knowledge.

Since Serafall was in charge of foreign diplomacy, there was a need for him to quickly learn as much as he could of the other Factions that existed outside of Biblical Faction.

It was truly astonishing that the supernatural world was so bloody huge, and that Soul Society and the Devils were just a part of a much larger picture.

Still, they hadn't gotten there yet.

For one thing, Serafall had yet to teach Ichigo the Devil's language, which necessitated a few days of vocal and writing practice so that he could get it down.

Plus, it was still more important for Ichigo to learn of the three Biblical Factions, Heaven, the Grigori and the Devils, because they were the ones he would encounter the most.

They had already covered most of the key points of the Biblical Factions' history, including, but not limited to, Adam's and Eve's temptation by the Serpent of Eden, leading to the fall of humanity, Lucifer's and his cohorts' fall from Heaven, and the Great War, during which Grayfia had revealed to him that YHWH, the Biblical God and Satan's other half, had _perished_ , something that only the top brass of each of the three Biblical Factions were aware of.

It was necessary to hide the truth from the masses to prevent instability, and so that they wouldn't be invaded by other Factions seeking more territory and influence.

Shock did not even begin to describe Ichigo's reaction.

The Biblical God was dead? Hell, Gods could die?

He flashed back to a year ago, when he had prayed in Kuou's church for Kasumi's and Daigo's success in childbearing.

Looks like Touji was wrong. His prayer was not heard, because God wasn't around to hear it anymore.

Genesis, the beginning of all of existence itself, was only vaguely touched on, because the truth could not be ascertained. According to the Bible, YHWH had created the universe in 6 days and rested on the 7th day, but it didn't make complete sense, since the other Factions still around that had not been created by YHWH also had their own versions of Genesis.

For all they knew, all of the creator Gods, or perhaps none of them, were the ones who had jumpstarted Creation.

And since YHWH was dead, no one could ask him.

Following the Great War, all three Biblical Factions retreated from the frontlines to recover from the losses they had sustained, entering a period of uneasy peace that continued even today.

Heaven had lost YHWH and a good number of Angels, the Devils had lost their leaders and almost half of the 72 Pillars, and the Grigori had pretty much been decimated.

It was not long after the Great War that the Devils' civil war had occurred, where the Current Maou Faction, led by the four Devils who would become the current Yondai Maous, rebelled against the incompetent children of the Original Maous to save their race from extinction.

It just so happened that that was when Sirzechs and Grayfia met, the latter originally being a member of the Old Maou Faction, having come from the Lucifuge Clan which directly served the original Lucifer.

They fell in love, which led to Grayfia defecting near the climax of the civil war, and subsequently got married following the current Yondai Maous' inaugurations.

Their love story was the Devils' equivalent of Romeo and Juliet, just with a much happier ending, and had even been adapted into a screenplay.

Grayfia seemed embarrassed to even bring it up, but considering it was present in great detail in pretty much every history she could get her hands on, she ended up having to tell the story to him.

Once they were done with the history lesson, she set about teaching him the names of both the active and extinct Clans of the 72 Pillars, along with the names of prominent Devils, dead or alive.

Serafall had said that Ichigo learned best from firsthand experience, but it wasn't like he was bad with this kind of learning.

There was a reason he still managed to constantly score near top scores despite having to juggle his human life with his Substitute Shinigami duties 4 years ago.

The fact that it was all fresh and new to him helped to maintain his interest in the subject.

Particularly interesting were the entries on the various unique traits of each of the 72 Pillars.

For example, the Sitri Clan had a heightened affinity with water magic, which explained Serafall's nearly godlike level of ice magic, which was a branch of water, a result of her Super Devil power combined with her clan's trait.

Not all traits were passive in nature like that.

There were abilities like the Baal Clan's Power of Destruction, which was basically a physical manifestation of the very concept of destruction itself.

Actually, 'Power of Annihilation' would be a much more apt name, since it purportedly erased any traces of whatever it touched from existence completely.

It certainly explained why Sirzechs Lucifer's reiatsu felt like a black hole at its very core.

He possessed Baal blood in his veins, passed down from his mother, Venelana Gremory nee Baal, who was known as the strongest female member of the Baal Clan before she settled down with her husband, the current head of the Gremory Clan, and had Sirzechs.

It wasn't just the 72 Pillars that possessed unique traits. Most Extra Clans also had their own hereditary ability.

The Extra Clan Abaddon had the ability known as Hole, which basically opened up an entrance to a pocket dimension over which the user had full control of. They could use it for a variety of purposes, like as a storage space, but it also had impressive combat capabilities, allowing the user to absorb attacks from others and throw them back, or in the case of physical attacks, absorb the inertia of the blow and use that instead.

Apparently, it could even split up the power of the attacks it had absorbed and fire one by one rather than all at once.

Not all of the traits of the 72 Pillars were listed. Some Clans, like the Belial Clan, which 'Emperor' Diehauser Belial, the reigning champion of the Rating Game, was a member of, kept their trait a secret for a variety reasons. Only some Clans had chosen to make their traits known to the public, which was why they were listed in the compendium.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the traits really did function like hereditary traits, for there were some cases of scions of Clans not possessing the traits due to some genetic quirk, which in most cases led to their ostracism or outright exile from the Clan.

Having learned all of that rather fast, Grayfia next started teaching him about their enemies, Heaven, the Church, and the Grigori.

The first was Heaven.

As the Bible had stated, it was the resting ground for sinless souls of believers that had passed on.

Unlike the souls in Soul Society, which needed to be sent there via Konso, because of their intense belief, it appeared that the souls of believers automatically enter Heaven, Hell or Purgatory depending on whether or not they had sinned, and the weight of their sins.

But, Heaven was also much more than just a paradise.

It was also home to the Angels.

Angels were basically the opposite of Devils. Created by YHWH to be his messengers, his soldiers, fulfilling a large number of roles.

Their appearance could vary just like a human's, but telltale signs were the white feathered wings on their backs, and the golden halo above their head.

They could convert their reiatsu into Holy energy, the opposite of the Demonic energy that Devils used, and like Devils, had an innate ability to aurally and verbally understand almost any language.

Like Devils and their class system, Angels also had their own ranks, though with notable differences, the most prominent being that the rank of the Angels could only rise with the number of their wings, as opposed to the Devil's class system, where a Low-Class and High-Class Devil could both have a single pair and still have a huge disparity in status.

The first was the lowest rank, which belonged to ordinary Angels, signified with either one or two pairs of wings. In terms of raw power, they were the weakest among all Angels, much like Low-Class Devils.

The next rank actually had a name: Ophanim. They were more powerful, and likely older Angels that had ascended and obtained a third pair of wings, with more power than regular Angels, the equivalent of Middle-Class Devils to weaker High-Class Devils.

Next was Cherubim. They were Ophanim who had managed to ascend through training and obtained their fourth pair, the equivalents of most High-Class Devils.

The last rank was the most well-known and the highest rank achievable: Seraphim. They were the strongest Angels, possessing five pairs of wings, with power ranging from Ultimate-Class to Maou level.

And according to a compendium Ichigo had read, there were currently only six Seraphs: Metatron, Sandalphon, Raguel, Sariel, Remiel and Zafkiel.

And above even them was a higher level of Angel that could not be naturally obtained, the Great Seraphs: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel, who were collectively known as the Four Great Seraphs, Heaven's highest authority aside from YHWH, and likely their leaders now that their God was gone.

They, along with Lucifer, were YHWH's firstborn, and were thus given twelve wings each as the absolute proof of that, with Michael's and Lucifer's having a golden color to signify their position as YHWH's most trusted Lieutenants.

One of Lucifer's pairs had been stripped from him when he became a Devil as a sign of his fall from YHWH's favor.

Despite the matching number of wings, the Great Seraphs and the Super Devils did not possess the same level of power.

The Four Great Seraphs were certainly stronger than the six Seraphs, but the difference in power wasn't that massive.

Another great difference between Angels and Devils was the way the upper class treated the lower class.

Unlike Pure Blood High Class Devils, who mostly looked down on the Low-Class, Middle-Class and Reincarnated Devils, the high-ranking Angels seemed to actually get along with the low-ranking ones, without much disparity in their treatment other than what facilities in Heaven they were allowed access to.

Also under Heaven's command was the Church.

It wasn't referring to the Catholic Church, or the Eastern Orthodox Church, but all Christian Denominations as a whole. Though they differed in their beliefs, they still served the same master, even if he was no longer around.

Of course, not every single Christian in the world had combat potential. Only a small portion of believers were handpicked to become Exorcists, humans trained to kill the enemies of Heaven and the Church, which may or may not be the same.

The standard equipment of an Exorcist was rather simple. A sword that could project a beam of Holy energy, a revolver loaded with sanctified bullets, a bottle of holy water, and a silver cross.

It didn't seem like much, but Holy energy was lethal to Devils. Even minor contact with it would immediately wound them. For weak Devils, getting stabbed by a blade of pure Holy energy was pretty much guaranteed to kill them.

Stronger Devils, like him, could resist the effects of Holy energy unless it was particularly concentrated, say if he were directly struck by a blade of Holy energy that a Seraph had generated.

And even then, it might not work on him, considering how he was supposedly a 'Super Devil' and all.

Would Holy energy even have any effect on him anymore if he were to exert his full power?

It wasn't exactly something he could test out, except maybe by barging into the Vatican, which probably wasn't a good idea.

Not only would that likely trigger another Great War, the current Cardinal wasn't someone he wanted to piss off, if what he had read was anything to go by.

Vasco Strada, the current Cardinal of the Vatican, the second highest authority in the Catholic Church, and also the Strongest Exorcist of all time. He was the wielder of the legendary Peerless Holy Sword, Durandal, and was so strong that in his prime, he was considered to have the same level of power as one of the Original Maous.

And he was doubtlessly, 100% human.

Just reading all of that made Ichigo certain that he did not want to meet the man under anything but friendly circumstances.

A Holy Sword was on a completely different level compared to the swords of Holy energy that the average Exorcist employed.

The majority of them had been created by YHWH himself, weapons possessing so much Holy power that they could easily vaporize an Ultimate-Class Devil at their full power.

Excalibur, Caliburn, Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi (which was incidentally one of the few Holy Swords that YHWH had no hand in creating), all of the weapons that Ichigo had only heard of in myths and legends turned out to be very real, and very dangerous.

And even among all of those legendary weapons, Durandal, the Holy Sword wielded by the Paladin, Roland, stood out, possessing the most destructive power of all Holy Swords, so much that it apparently had to be kept under heavy duty seals when not in use to prevent it from utterly annihilating everything around it.

Furthermore, Vasco Strada was said to be the greatest modern Durandal wielder, so skilled at handling the damn thing that he had been compared to Roland himself.

Was he really a human?

And he was not the only one. There was another famous Exorcist that he probably did not want to cross paths with.

Ewald Cristaldi, a Cardinal Deacon, the third highest authority of the Catholic Church, and the acknowledged greatest wielder of Excalibur since King Arthur himself, being able to singlehandedly use three Excalibur fragments at the same time.

In the Great War, it was only natural that Heaven would send out its strongest warriors, including the Holy Sword wielders.

It was during then that Excalibur's wielder, a descendant of King Arthur himself, was killed, and the most famous Holy Sword in existence shattered.

However, Heaven was able to recover the fragments and reforge them into seven lesser Holy Swords, known collectively as the Excalibur Fragments, each possessing one of the original's abilities.

They were probably created to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands, and would be forged back into the original Excalibur once all of the Fragments had been assembled, but before that could happen, the first Fragment, Excalibur Ruler, went missing, leaving only six Fragments in Heaven's possession, and thus, the original Excalibur was lost.

But despite being pieces of the original, each possessed power that would not lose out to the other Holy Swords.

It was already difficult enough to wield a single Holy Sword, because they not only required a good deal of power and skill to use, but Holy Swords all possessed a form of sentience which allowed it to decide its wielder.

Being able to wield three Excalibur Fragments at the same time was a testament to Ewald Cristaldi's talent as a Holy Sword Wielder.

The world really was full of monsters, and some of them were human.

After learning all of the necessary information about Heaven and the Church, Grayfia had him move onto the Grigori.

Ichigo was currently reading a detailed encyclopedia about the Grigori, and one particular entry stood out to him.

The title of that entry?

'Baraqiel, Cadre of the Grigori'.

And right below the title was a picture of said Cadre, who was identical to the man bearing the same name he had met in the out of the way Shinto shrine a year ago, except with ten jet black feathered wings sprouting from his back.

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched.

Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Yeah, that had to be it. The Baraqiel he met and the Fallen Angel Baraqiel had to be two different people, who just happened to look alike and have the same name.

…Who was he kidding? With his luck, the two were probably one and the same, and likely still remembered him.

What should he do if they ever met?

On a personal level, Ichigo liked Baraqiel.

He had only stayed one night at the shrine, but they had talked at one point, and that had been enough for Ichigo to consider him a friend.

Baraqiel was surly, but he had a strong, warrior-type mentality that Ichigo couldn't help but respect.

And he seemed to sincerely love Shuri, that much was clear, being very protective of her, which was what resulted in his less than warm reception towards Ichigo, something he understood and could not fault him for.

But, they were now basically enemies.

If they ever came to blows, would Ichigo have to kill him?

It was because he was too busy agonizing over that that he didn't notice the new arrival in the library.

At least not until said new arrival crashed into him with all the subtlety of a freight train, knocking him, and the chair he was sitting on, over, causing him to let out a startled yell.

"Hi, Ichigo-chan! Working hard, I see!"

He didn't really need to look to know who it was.

"Serafall, get off me." Ichigo said tersely from his awkward prone position on top of a topple chair.

The slightly diminutive Maou grinned at him, her arms wrapped around his torso in a deceptively strong hug.

"Don't wanna. You're comfy." Serafall said childishly as she pressed her head against his chest.

His eyebrow twitched again, and his hand immediately seized the top of her head, tightening like an iron claw.

"Ow! Ow! Ow ow ow! Ichigo-chan, stop that!" The current Leviathan immediately started protesting his rough treatment.

"I'm afraid not, Leviathan-sama. Leviathan-sama is a Maou, and thus must act accordingly. What would Leviathan-sama's subjects say if they knew Leviathan-sama was acting in such an unseemly manner? As Leviathan-sama's Queen, I must correct Leviathan-sama's behavior immediately." Ichigo said in a deadly tone, accompanied with a cold smile that would send even the most stouthearted of men running for the hills.

His grip on her head tightened even more, causing Serafall to struggle even more.

"Waah~! Ichigo-chan, you meanie! Even though I came here to give you some good news!" Serafall cried comically, tears at the corner of her eyes.

"Good news?" Ichigo asked, his grip slackening just enough for her to escape and rub her sore head, which in turn also allowed him to finally get back up.

"Allow me to explain, Ichigo-kun. Because you have advanced to the rank of Ultimate-Class, you are now eligible to form your own peerage. As such, you will be visiting the capital, Lilith, to register yourself as a new King at the monument, and will receive your Evil Pieces afterwards. Allow me to congratulate you." Grayfia explained fluidly as she bowed to him, completely unperturbed by Serafall's sudden intrusion, and his subsequent handling of his King.

Though, he could have sworn he caught a gleam of approval in her grey eyes before they return to their neutral state.

"Ah, Grayfia-chan, I wanted to tell him that!" Serafall complained with a pout.

"If Leviathan-sama were the one to explain, it would take too long. You have a tendency to go on long and unrelated tangents." Grayfia replied instantly, as though she had been waiting for Serafall to say something.

"Waaah~! Grayfia-chan is being mean too!" Serafall pouted, an expression that did not look out of place on her childlike facial features, but was rather unbecoming of a Maou.

Ichigo paid them no mind, focusing on the news instead.

"Is that so…Wait, didn't I get my rank a week ago? Does it usually take this long for Evil Pieces to be assigned?" Ichigo asked, finding it rather odd.

He heard that the fertility rate of Pure Blood Devils was low, especially among the 72 Pillars, so there weren't all that many Pure Blood High Class Devils born every generation.

However, with the class system in place, there should still be a fair number of candidates for the title of High-Class, even if one were to consider the discrimination the Devils' council, the authority that would ultimately decide whether Devils were worthy of taking a promotion examination, displayed against Reincarnated Devils.

He would have thought that that Evil Piece sets would be created to be on standby for when they were promoted.

"Oh, it's pretty simple, really. Ajuka-chan had to make your set of Evil Pieces special, so it took longer than normal." Serafall said nonchalantly, as though that explained everything.

Ichigo remembered that Ajuka Beelzebub was the lead researcher of the Devils, the one who had created the Evil Piece System in the first place to replenish the numbers they had lost during the Great War and the civil war.

But, why did his Evil Pieces have to specially made?

Ichigo stared at Serafall pointedly, and she relented with a sigh after a few seconds.

"Ichigo-chan, you basically know that you are a Super Devil now, right?"

"Well, yeah, almost everyone I've met has been calling me that. Kinda hard to miss."

"But, do you actually know what a Super Devil is?"

Ichigo paused.

Now that he thought about it, no one actually told him what being a Super Devil entailed exactly.

"Um…a super strong Devil?" Ichigo guessed weakly.

"Well, that's putting it lightly. Super Devils are basically mutated Devils who possess much more power than the Original Maous from birth. Sirzechs-chan, Ajuka-chan, Falbium-chan and I were born with about 10 times more raw power than our original counterparts, along with our six pairs of wings, and have only continued to grow stronger since then. At our full power, all of us could rank in the World's Top 10 Strongest, outranking even most Gods. That's the kind of power that ordinary Devils could never hope to even come close to, even if they were to train their whole lives. If you need a clear comparison, just one of the four of us could have defeated that mad man, Aizen, after his transcendence by ourselves without needing our full power."

If Ichigo were drinking something, he would have spat all of it out instantly. That's how shocked he was.

He had faced the transcendent Aizen himself, and frankly speaking, the guy was a monster. If Ichigo hadn't attained an even higher level of transcendence by using the Final Getsuga Tensho, he wouldn't even have been able to stand in his presence without being disintegrated.

If Aizen had the chance to use his full power, the entire realm of Soul Society probably would have been destroyed in a single blow.

And to hear that any of the four of them was much stronger than that kind of crazy monster…well, it was jarring, to say the least.

Just looking at Serafall right now, he couldn't imagine that she held a monumentally greater amount of power than a Hogyoku-empowered Aizen.

He could certainly sense that there were hidden, unfathomable depths to her power, but…

She seemed to be able to tell what he was thinking, because she explained.

"I know that none of us actually look it, but it's true. Right now, none of us are in our _true forms_."

"True…forms?"

Ichigo had a very ominous premonition.

"Yes, our true forms, in which we can exhibit all of our immense power. Truth be told, if you were to look our true forms, you would definitely not be able to associate us with Devils at all. Or perhaps, you would think that we look far more like Devils than ordinary Devils do. That is, if you didn't lose your sanity from looking at us first. Right now, all of us are exerting extreme control over our power so that we can at least look normal and be able to interact with our subjects without accidently killing them just by being around them, so fine that we can maintain them unconsciously, even if we're fast asleep, or completely out cold. In these false forms, I think the most any of us can exert is around 1% of our true power."

Ichigo shivered.

1%.

All he had been sensing from Serafall, the power that could match even the venerable Captain Commander of Gotei 13, was just a fraction, a hundredth of her full power.

Suddenly, he got the feeling he wasn't anywhere near as wary of Serafall as he should have been.

Ichigo froze when Serafall, who suddenly seemed more terrifying than ever, pointed a finger at him.

"And Ichigo-chan, you are now one of us, a Super Devil too."

All at once, the implications of being counted among the ranks of Serafall and the other Super Devils hit him.

He was also one of those stupidly strong beings too.

"Well, truth be told, I have no idea where all your power comes from. It's true that being born from _a Shinigami father in a human body and a Quincy mother infected with Hollow powers_ would give birth to a powerful being, a perfect hybrid of four opposing species, but I don't think that alone would have been enough to elevate you to the same level as us…No, it must have been your attainment of transcendence when you fought Aizen Sosuke." Serafall mused to herself, though loudly enough for him to still hear her.

"When you attained transcendence, you opened a pathway to a much higher dimension of power, one great enough to put you on our level. Ichigo-chan, you remember what Urahara Kisuke said, right? When you used the Final Getsuga Tensho, you lost your Shinigami powers, but you didn't actually lose your reserves. They simply became inaccessible to you, because your powers, the 'link' that allowed you to convert your reserves into reiatsu, were lost. When you became a Devil, you regained full access to your immense reserves that had been bolstered by your transcendence. In other words, right now, you possess the same level of reserves that you had back when you used the Final Getsuga Tensho. No, considering they've been still been growing even over the 4 years that you didn't have any access to them, you might be even stronger than that now."

…What?

What?

What!?

WHAT!?

His power was even higher than it was back when he was a transcendent being beyond even Aizen!?

But…his surroundings weren't being warped with every movement he made, he wasn't accidently killing all the weaker beings around him with the sheer weight of his presence, and most of all, he did not feel that empowering sense of omnipotence.

"I already know what you're thinking. You don't feel like you have that kind of power at the moment. Right now, I have your power on a very tight leash, so you won't be able to release most of it without my permission."

Ichigo blinked and stared at her with confusion, silently asking her why.

"…Ichigo-chan, I haven't told you this, but when I reincarnated you into a Devil, you immediately turned into something I can't even begin to describe with words." Serafall said with a very unsettled look.

Ichigo felt a chill run down his spine.

If it was something capable of unsettling Serafall…

"Whatever it was, it was probably…your true form as a Super Devil. The only thing I knew for certain was that if you were left in that state, you would have engulfed the world. Luckily, I had anticipated that something like that might happen, so I was able to restrain your power by placing a seal on the Mutated Queen Piece I used to reincarnate you. So, until you acquire the control required to maintain your current form without my help, you can only use as much power as I allow." She said with a firm look, as though telling him she wouldn't listen to any objections he had.

Not that he was planning to. If it was a power he couldn't control on his own, he was better off without it until he could.

He would rather _not_ accidently annihilate the planet and all life on it.

"Anyway, since we have that kind of insane power, it's only natural that ordinary Evil Piece sets would not be able to handle it. That's why the Evil Pieces of the current Yondai Maous had to be specially created to be able to adjust to our crazy power. Ichigo-chan, you are now also one of the Super Devils. Not only that, but you possess the powers of our great ancestor, Satan-sama himself. It's only natural that your Evil Pieces had to be specially made too, in anticipation of the day that you will have full control over your power." Serafall concluded on a serious note.

Ichigo was completely speechless, still processing what Serafall had just rather unceremoniously dumped on him.

Just as he regained enough cognition to start asking questions, the current Leviathan smiled brightly, killing the mood quite effectively.

"Now then, off we go to Lilith! Then after that, we're throwing you a party!" Serafall exclaimed gleefully as she started pushing him from behind.

"Wait, what?"

* * *

Ichigo had been uncomfortable with the stares he had been getting from pretty much every Devil he passed by, but right now, he would give anything to find himself in that situation again.

At least then, he could actually walk away from the stares.

Here, he had no such option, especially since he was the guest of honor.

The guest of honor of what?

A goddamn party that Serafall and her parents had thrown in the Sitri estate to celebrate his place as the former's Queen, his attainment of the rank of Ultimate-Class, amongst other, less official titles, and his acquirement of his set of Evil Pieces.

And apparently, they had seen fit to invite what seemed to be the entire upper-class portion of their society.

He and Serafall had first gone to the capital to collect his Evil Pieces from Ajuka Beelzebub, who had a research facility built near the heart of the city.

Said facility was actually deep underground, and thus inaccessible from the surface unless one knew where the elevator, hidden inconspicuously in an out-of-order phone booth with opaque glass (which he found very cliché), was, and had both a passcode and a keycard.

The Devil who was known as the most mysterious of the current Yondai Maous met them at the lobby, and proceeded to drop a case into Ichigo's hands with a smile on his face, beckoning him to open it.

Ichigo complied, and found himself staring at an incomplete chess set, missing the King Piece, which Serafall had still not explained to him now that he thought about it.

They looked to be the same as the unused Evil Pieces that Serafall had shown him when she reincarnated him, with one notable difference.

Serafall's pieces had veins of icy blue running inside them.

The ones he had been handed had the same, except they were pitch black.

Serafall had mentioned that normal Evil Pieces did not have any veins, so he supposed that these were the mark of Evil Pieces modified to handle the power of Super Devils.

Ajuka asked him to pour his reiatsu into the Evil Pieces to ensure that he hadn't miscalculated anything and that they would be able to handle his power, and upon doing so, they all started the same shade of absolute pitch black that his reiatsu now bore.

The Evil Pieces appeared to be able to contain his reiatsu without showing any signs of instability, so Ajuka called it a success and shooed them away so that he could continue his research, though not before Serafall reminded him about the party, which he responded to by waving halfheartedly as he turned around to return to the depths of the facility.

Serafall then brought him to a massive monument built right in front of the building in which he had that meeting with the Devils' council and the Yondai Maous, which he learned was actually the parliament building.

It took the form of a 50 meter tall King Piece carved out of a marble-like material, with many, many names inscribed on it.

Ichigo noted Serafall's name, as well as that of the other Maous, Rune and Sanna, as well as many other prominent Devils.

Most were glowing in a variety of colors that likely corresponded to the color of their reiatsu, judging by the ice blue that illuminated Serafall's, but there were some that were not glowing at all, and had actually faded a bit.

He could easily guess why. The owners of those names were probably dead.

Following Serafall's instructions, Ichigo placed a palm on the panel that was built into the monument and inject a minute amount of his reiatsu into it, taking care not to accidently force too much in and break the damn thing.

Immediately, his name etched itself onto a part of the blank space still available, which still took up most of it, and started glowing with a pitch black radiance, something Ichigo did not think was supposed to be possible by the laws of physics, but he guessed logic wasn't something that applied to Devils very often.

Serafall proceeded to set off a few party poppers she had pulled out of nowhere, causing confetti to rain down on his head, and also prompted a round of applause from the crowd that Ichigo had only just noticed had gathered around the monument to witness the spectacle.

Then, he found himself here, in the ballroom of the Sitri estate, being perpetually gazed upon by what appeared to be hundreds of High-Class and above Pure Blood Devils, who appeared to feel no shame in staring unblinkingly at him.

And even worse was the damn monkey suit that Serafall had stuffed him into. It was making him itch in all the wrong places, and he couldn't exactly just start scratching.

Which led to him greeting guests that had come forward to either congratulate him, heap compliments on him, offer their daughter's hand in marriage to him, or in the single females' cases, offer their own, with a very stiff smile that he hoped like hell had gone unnoticed.

At least the food was good.

"Ah, Ichigo-kun, do you mind if I steal you away for a moment?"

Ichigo turned to meet the blue-green eyes of the current Lucifer.

Sirzechs Lucifer smiled genially at him, which did absolutely nothing to assuage the sudden surge of fear that Ichigo felt when near that sensation of a never-ending, all-annihilating abyss.

Suddenly, the itchiness all over his body was the least of his concerns.

Still, he swallowed down his nervousness and answered him.

"Not at all. What is it?"

"I would rather not say here. Let's talk in private." The Devil known as the Crimson Lucifer said and ushered him away from the crowd.

Ichigo didn't know whether to be thankful to him for getting him out of that awkwardness, or be terrified at the thought of being alone with this unholy (no pun intended) being.

To his relief, Sirzechs had led him to what appeared to be the Sitri estate's library, where Serafall was already waiting.

"Ah, Serafall, you're already here. Good." Sirzechs commented when he saw his fellow Maou.

"What's this about, Sirzechs-chan?" Serafall asked, evidently not knowing why Sirzechs sought both of them out.

"Well…I guess I need to explain a few things to Ichigo-kun first. Ichigo-kun, you already know about the other Biblical Factions, right?"

"You mean Heaven and the Grigori?"

"Correct. As you know, we are currently in a state of ceasefire with our two enemy Factions because of the damages all sides sustained during the Great War. However, from time to time, things between us are still very tense, and when members of opposing Factions meet, it's not uncommon for a fight to break out and for one or both sides to suffer casualties. Because of that, you could say that this peace we enjoy right now is nothing more than a façade. The slightest change in the status quo could cause another Great War to erupt. And unfortunately, Ichigo-kun, the return of Satan-sama's power more than qualifies as a 'change'. Already, half of the council is demanding that we declare war on Heaven, the Church and the Grigori, and wipe them out once and for all." Sirzechs explained with a grimace.

An expression that Ichigo quickly adopted.

It was fairly obvious that the return of the power of the original Devil would cause a massive upheaval of the status quo, but he hadn't thought that it might go as far as to start another war.

"Well, if you were to look at it from a logical perspective, they might have a point. Heaven has lost their God and the Grigori's numbers are only a fraction of what they once were. On the other hand, despite the extinction of more than half of the 72 Pillars, we now have 5 Super Devils whose powers all could match most Gods, 4, if were to exclude you on account of your current incapability to control your full power, in addition to multiple Ultimate-Class Devils who can rival the original Yondai Maou. If another Great War were to break out, we would most likely win. However, in spite of that, the Yondai Maou would rather seek true peace between the Biblical Factions. Even if we were to win, we would still likely incur many casualties on our side, and the aftermath of the war would leave us vulnerable to attacks from other Factions. The Four Great Seraphs, and most of the Grigori's leaders agree with this sentiment as well. That is why, every few months, leaders of the Biblical Factions meet in secret to exchange information, root out members of our Factions who have been incite dissent and start another war, things like that. And our next meeting just happens to be tomorrow."

"…And?" Ichigo asked, not quite liking where this was going.

He could hazard a guess as to why Sirzechs was telling him all of this.

"Ichigo-kun, I would like you to participate in the meeting as well."

Yup, called it.

* * *

Ichigo stared into the abyss.

The disconcerting part was that the abyss was undoubtedly staring back at him.

There weren't any literal eyes floating around in the darkness surrounding him, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched from all directions.

Ichigo blinked once…twice…and then palmed his face with a sigh.

"Great, now I'm starting to have weird ass dreams…"

He vaguely remembered returning to the party after Sirzechs had told him about the meeting, and had quite a number of drinks after being egged on by Serafall.

His memory after that was fuzzy, but judging by the pounding in his head, he probably drank too much, and was now experiencing a hangover.

It wasn't a pleasant experience.

And because he had fallen asleep drunk, it wasn't out of the question for him to be having strange dreams.

"I can assure you, little one, this is no mere dream." A deep, disembodied baritone suddenly rang out, echoing through the abyss.

…Okay, drunk as he was, he was pretty sure that dreams usually weren't supposed to talk to him as though they had been listening to every word he said, and tell him that he _wasn't_ dreaming.

Seriously, how wasted was he?

"Your level of inebriation has nothing to do with what you are experiencing at the moment. Nothing except your migraine, anyway."

…And now it was reading his mind.

Okay, maybe, _just maybe_ , this wasn't just some weird alcohol-induced dream.

"Yes, I am glad to see that you are more receptive to the idea." The voice spoke again, this time in a far more sardonic tone.

…He could definitely do without the sarcasm though.

"My apologies, little one, but you make it far too easy." The voice rumbled with evident amusement.

"Alright, I'll bite. Who are you, if not a fictional product of a dream?" Ichigo asked out loud, since he couldn't exactly tell where the owner of the voice was, considering that one, it was pitch black, and he could barely make out his own hand in front of his face, and two, the voice sounded like it was coming from all directions.

As soon as that thought passed through his head, the world seemed to shift around him, the darkness that completely permeated every corner of Ichigo's field of vision suddenly moving to converge and coalesce at a single point, revealing the nonsensical, kaleidoscopic landscape it had been obscuring, causing him to experience a sense of vertigo and almost lose his balance.

What was he even standing on? There didn't seem to be a stable foothold for miles, much less under his feet.

His attention returned back to the ball of darkness that had formed in front of him, looking out of place in the bright, colorful realm he was in.

It slowly began to compress itself into the shape of a human, before its features solidified at once.

What was once a mass of black had become a tall, handsome black-haired man with red irises surrounded by black scleras, regal facial features, and very old-fashioned black noble clothes.

However, what really caught Ichigo's attention were _the six pairs of bat-like wings extending from his back_.

The mark of a Super Devil.

"It has been a very long time since I was last able to assume this form. Is this a phenomenon made possible because we are in the realm of the Dream? I suppose it does not matter at this juncture." The man muttered to himself in the same voice that Ichigo had been talking to just a moment ago, looking at his hand with a look of unfamiliarity, as though he was seeing the appendage for the first time.

He looked up, straight into Ichigo's eyes.

"Hello, Kurosaki Ichigo. I need to speak with you. You, who have inherited my-" The man spoke to him, but was cut off by a loud sound of something cracking.

Both of them turned to observe a large crack that appeared in the air not too far from them, slowly getting bigger, spreading in a web pattern.

"Um…is that supposed to happen?"

"It appears that time is not on our side. We will have to continue this conversation on another occasion." The man said with a disappointed sigh.

The realm shattered around them, falling to pieces like fragments of broken glass.

The man began to vanish, dispersing back into the darkness that he once was.

"Wait! Who are you!?" Ichigo immediately called out, wanting some idea as to what the hell was going on.

"My name is-"

The man started to say, but his voice was soon overpowered by the sound of the realm breaking down around them.

However, Ichigo very clearly heard his words, and shock did not even begin to describe what he was feeling.

The next moment, he found himself staring up at the canopy of the bed he was lying in.

This…was the same room he had stayed in in the Sitri estate the day before he had met the Devils' council and the rest of the Yondai Maou for the first time.

Was he awake?

The sound of soft breathing caused him to turn his head, to find his field of vision taken up completely by Serafall's peaceful sleeping face.

He…wasn't even going to question why his King was sleeping in the same bed as him.

He was still too busy trying to process the fact that he had just met the Original Devil.

* * *

"And you're sure it wasn't just a dream?"

"Sure didn't feel like one."

While he was still not completely convinced that the encounter had been anything more than a figment of his alcohol-addled imagination, even the remote possibility of being able to speak to the Original Devil himself, whose power Ichigo had obtained, was far too big a deal to keep to himself.

Which was why he had consulted with the Yondai Maou while they were on their way to the meeting between the pro-peace leaders of the Biblical Factions.

Their reactions ranged from shock to intrigue.

But, none of them looked to be dismissive of his claims.

They knew far too little of the enigmatic First Maou to be able to say anything for certain.

"What exactly did Satan-sama look like?" Sirzechs asked.

"Tall guy, black hair, red eyes with black scleras, old noble clothes, six pairs of bat wings." Ichigo recited, his image of Satan rather clear in his head.

"Hm…that certainly does fit some descriptions that we have heard the oldest living Devils speak of…"

"What exactly did he say?" Ajuka asked this time.

"Um…not much, actually. Just that he wanted to talk to me since I inherited something of his, probably his powers…Oh, and he said something about being in the realm of the Dream." Ichigo replied, recalling the few words the purported Satan had said to him, leaving out the sarcastic exchange at the beginning.

He did not miss the way that the Yondai Maou glanced sharply at each other when they heard the last few words he had spoken.

"Satan-sama said 'the realm of the Dream', not 'the realm of dreams', correct?" Falbium Asmodeus, looking wide awake for once, asked sharply.

"Yeah…" Ichigo confirmed, not quite understanding the significance behind the slightly different wording.

But, judging by the looks on their faces, it carried far more weight than he could imagine.

"The realm of the Dream…certainly, anything is possible within 'its' domain…"

"But for Satan-sama to have to contact Ichigo-kun through the realm of the Dream…is that conclusive proof that he is indeed dead?"

"Or perhaps, he is simply incapacitated, and is incapable of communicating in any other way?"

"But…what role does it play in all of this? What does this mean?"

"It means one of you needs to start explaining, because I'm beginning to get a little irritated at being left out." Ichigo cut in in a terse manner, not happy at being excluded from their conversation.

The Yondai Maou started, as though they had forgotten that he was even there.

They turned to him with identical serious expressions.

"Ichigo-chan, have you ever wondered what lies beyond the walls of the Dangai?" Serafall asked.

"…I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say impending doom." Ichigo deadpanned, not really wanting to know what fresh hell was beyond the walls of the realm that had almost killed him on several occasions.

The Yondai Maou chuckled at the same time, apparently finding his answer amusing.

"You're not too far off actually. Beyond the metaphysical walls that separate dimensions from each other lies the primordial sea of chaos from which all of creation is said to have sprung forth from, so chaotic that it is impossible for normal mortals to stay without being ripped apart by the eldritch energies that predate even Genesis. We call it the Dimensional Gap. And in the Dimensional Gap lies a certain being, who, along with only one other, is the only being capable of directly manipulating the endless realm, much like how only Satan-sama, and by extension, you, is the only one capable of manipulating Hell to your heart's desire . We call it Great Red, for we know no other name for it, the legendary red Dragon recorded in the Book of Revelations."

"…A Dragon." Ichigo parroted, skepticism coloring his words.

"Yes, Ichigo-kun, I can assure you that Dragons are very real, scarce as they are in numbers these days, as real as Devils. In fact, they are considered the strongest species aside from Gods. And Great Red is no mere Dragon. It is _the_ Dragon, the apex and first known of its kind, possessing power that vastly exceeds that of even the strongest Gods, much like its counterpart, the Infinite Dragon God, the Ouroboros Dragon, Ophis, who has been ranked first in the world's Top 10 Strongest since the dawn of time, and is the aforementioned only other being who can manipulate the Dimesional Gap. Some say that Great Red's power outclasses even Ophis's, if only by a little."

Ichigo vaguely recalled the term 'Top 10 Strongest' being dropped quite a number of times in the past few days.

Serafall put it rather succinctly.

If beings with power on the level of the Original Maous could be considered 'the super boss that awaited the player after the main game of an RPG', then the Top 10 Strongest were 'walking cheat codes'.

Apparently, any of the Yondai Maou, as well as Ichigo himself, in their true forms and at their full power could rank among the world's Top 10 Strongest beings.

Other holders of the prestigious title included the Bane of Olympus, the Greek King of Monsters, Typhon, for example, who possessed so much power that an entire pantheon of Gods fled at the sight of him, and even Zeus was not able to kill him, only being able to lull him to sleep, trap him in a hole in the ground, throw a whole fucking mountain on top of him to keep him there and hope to hell that he stayed asleep.

Then, there was his Norse counterpart, the God-Slaying Wolf, Fenrir, son of the Jotunn, Loki. His sons, Skoll and Hati, possessing only fractions of their sire's power, were capable of devouring the sun and the moon, and Fenrir himself was foretold to kill the King of the Norse Gods, Odin, during Ragnarok, the Norse Apocalypse.

Another example would be the Hindu Triumvirate. Especially the Hindu God of Destruction, Shiva, who was ranked 2nd among the Top 10, apparently possessing powers that almost completely specialized in the aspect of destruction, more so than even Sirzechs's Power of Destruction, which Ichigo could not even imagine to be possible.

And above even that ridiculous existence was a being that held the perhaps-not-so-much-ostentatious-as-much-as-well-deserved title of 'Infinite Dragon God'.

And there was _still_ one being who possessed more power than that?

"What does such a powerful being have to do with my not-dream anyway?"

"One of Great Red's titles is 'Dragon of Dreams'. While not concretely proven, Great Red is said to possess powers over fantasy, and has the ability to turn them into reality. Even something that should be impossible can be made possible if Great Red chooses to make it so. Even if Satan-sama was really dead, if Great Red is involved, it is not outside the realm of possibility that the one you met in your dreams was the real Satan-sama."

…Okay, that was on a completely different level of 'broken'.

And people thought that Satan's powers were stupidly strong?

"But…why now? Why is Satan-sama trying to contact Ichigo-kun all of a sudden after going missing for so long? Is there something going on?"

"Aren't we just overthinking it? Ichigo-kun is the successor to his powers which haven't been seen since Satan-sama's disappearance. Isn't it only natural that Satan-sama would take an interest?"

"However, we still don't know how Ichigo-kun came to possess Satan-sama's powers. If the Kushanada have always had the ability to bestow Satan-sama's powers onto another, why not do it sooner? Why wait until Ichigo-kun invaded Hell to do so?"

The three male Maous continued to converse amongst themselves, agonizing over the mystery that Ichigo had been trying to solve himself.

Why him?

Why was he of all people granted Satan's powers?

If the Kushanada had the ability to grant the powers of the Original Devil to whomever they chose, it would make more sense to choose a Devil rather than a then human like him.

Yet, they had not done so.

Why?

That was what he had been trying to figure out ever since he learned that he had come into possession of Satan's powers, but he was no closer to figuring it out now than he was at the start.

"You guys really should stop worrying so much. It's not like we'll be able to figure it out by agonizing over it. Rather than that, isn't there a much simpler solution? Ichigo-chan, Satan-sama said that he would contact you again, right? So, when he does, just ask him what's going on." Serafall interjected with a carefree tone.

The four males turned to stare at her with surprised expression, that simple answer never having occurred to them, before Sirzechs smiled wryly.

"I suppose you're right. Ichigo-kun, the next time you meet Satan-sama in the realm of the Dream, find out as much as you can from him. For now, let's keep your 'dream' to ourselves. Do not mention it to the other Factions. No one else should know until we know more."

Ichigo nodded, already intending to do so.

His possession of the Original Devil's powers was already enough of an upheaval to threaten the status quo of the Biblical Factions. He didn't want to imagine how Heaven and the Grigori would react if they learned that he was somehow in contact with Satan, apparently through the power of the strongest being in existence no less.

He still wondered why, but without more evidence, it was impossible to draw a conclusion.

Asking Satan seemed to be the simple solution, but there was no guarantee that he would meet him the next time he slept.

It took more than a month after he had already become a Devil for the Original Devil to contact him after all.

Maybe he should just ask the Kushanada? They apparently could not disobey him, so if he asked them why they granted Satan's powers to him, surely they would answer?

…Wait, could the Kushanada even talk?

During his invasion of Hell, he had never seen them make any sounds other than a low groaning.

He imagined it was hard to speak without a lower jaw.

Crap, was his only option to wait for Satan to contact him again after all?

"We're here."

Ichigo snapped back to attention when Sirzechs spoke.

The five of them had set out from Lilith and boarded one of the dimension-traversing trains, headed for the human world.

Since this was a secret meeting between most of the leaders of the Biblical Factions, they couldn't very well have it in one of their territories, where two other Factions would be at a tactical disadvantage, and where they could potentially be found out.

So, they had arranged a neutral territory in the human world for the three sides to meet.

Where that was, Ichigo had no idea. The only thing he knew was that it was in Japan.

He felt the train tremble as it grinded to a halt, having arrived at its destination.

The doors opened with a hiss and the five of them stepped out into the underground platform that only Devils could access and boarded an elevator that took them up to the surface.

Ajuka cast a spell, causing the air around them to shimmer for a second before returning to normal.

Ichigo assumed it was some sort of concealment spell, since, save Ichigo, who was dressed in a comfortable set of shirt, jacket and jeans, their outfits were hardly inconspicuous.

When the doors opened, Ichigo found himself in a rather familiar place.

Bustling crowds of humans, streaming through automated ticket machines, either to exit the station or enter the platform. It was a fairly common sight in any train station in Japan.

However, the electronic signboard that hung over the ticket machines told him exactly where he was.

"…We're having the meeting in Kyoto?"

* * *

"…You know, when I heard that we were having the meeting in neutral territory, I was expecting a top secret base somewhere deep underground, hidden and protected by so many layers of spells that it would be easier to wait for us to come back out than try to break through all of them." Ichigo commented as he looked around the meeting room.

"…I definitely wasn't expecting a private room in a restaurant."

They left the train station and immediately made their way to the heart of Kyoto, passing through a set of Torii gates that caused Ichigo to shudder when he felt a sensation much like ice going down his back.

Ajuka dropped the concealment spell, alarming him for a moment, before he realized that no one around them had the reiatsu of a human.

Much like Shinigami and Devils, all of them bore the appearances of humans, but none of them were actually human.

What were they?

Despite the fact that they were apparently now in an area devoid of humans, there were still a lot of stares, and most of them were still being directed towards Ichigo, despite being the most normal looking among the group.

Or maybe it was because he seemed too human that they were staring.

Either way, the Yondai Maou continued moving, completely unperturbed by the gawking around them, probably already used to attention.

They finally stopped in front of a high-class restaurant, and the greeter ushered them inside after confirming their identities, leading to this private room on the top floor of the restaurant.

It was spacious, with a large round table that took up the center of the room, a chandelier that hung over it, and a balcony with a smaller table that could seat six people.

Ichigo could not imagine that this place was very secure.

"If we had to set up the meeting grounds ourselves, the sheer amount of magic we placed into securing and hiding it would surely attract attention, no matter how well camouflaged it is. An inconspicuous location like this is less likely to be discovered, as unbelievable as that might seem. Furthermore, this is the middle of the Kyoto Youkai's territory, so an attack on us while we're here is also as good as an attack on them, and they will respond in kind." Sirzechs explained.

"…Youkai? Really? So everyone we met past the Torii gate were all Youkai?"

"That's right. In fact, this meeting place was arranged by the Youkai at our request, so its security will be left to them. Though, they requested something in return…"

"What is it?"

"Nothing to concern yourself with at the moment. You'll find out eventually. For now, let's focus on the meeting." Sirzechs changed the subject, causing Ichigo to get suspicious.

Whatever it was the Youkai had requested in return for arranging this spot for them, it had something to do with him.

Ichigo was about to ask Sirzechs to explain, when he felt his skin crawl as multiple powerful reiatsu signatures appeared nearby and began to approach.

His instincts were warning him that whoever these reiatsu belonged to, they were dangerous, and natural enemies of his.

"Ah, they're here." Sirzechs said.

Ichigo turned towards the door.

The reiatsu signatures drew closer and closer, and the door slid open to reveal their owners.

The first person at the door was an effeminate blonde man with gentle green eyes, dressed in ceremonial armor much like Sirzechs's.

Behind him was a voluptuous woman with curly blonde hair and the same gentle green eyes, dressed in a conservative white gown.

Beside her were a tall blonde man with the same green eyes, but hardened rather than gentle, dressed in white robes, and an equally tall man with hair and eyes the shade of burning flames, dressed in a more pragmatic looking robe that allowed its wearer maximum mobility without getting in the way.

All of them had 12 feathered wings, though the first man's were golden in color while the other two's and the woman's were white.

The only remaining Archangel after Lucifer's fall, Michael, the current leader of Heaven after YHWH's death, and the other three members of the Four Great Seraphs, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel.

The four of them filed into the room and took seats opposite the five Super Devils, all of them directing curious and cautious gazes at Ichigo.

Following behind them were three more men.

The first was a tall man with blonde and black hair, a black goatee, red eyes and twelve jet black feathered wings extending from his back, dressed in a purple trench coat and black trousers underneath, with a smile on his face, causing Ichigo to start as he was immediately reminded of Kisuke.

The second was a slightly shorter man with long black hair, black eyes, with ten black feathered wings instead of twelve, dressed in black robes, looking far more serious than the first.

The third was rather familiar, and Ichigo grimaced, not expecting to meet him again so soon after his reincarnation. His physical appearance had not changed since Ichigo last saw him, but he was now dressed in a cloak covering black armor, and had revealed his ten black feathered wings.

Azazel, the Governor of the Fallen Angels, his right hand man and the Vice Governor, Shemhaza, and one of Cadres, Baraqiel. Three leaders of the Grigori.

There were technically four main leaders of the Grigori, but from what Serafall had told hin, the last of the four, another Cadre, Kokabiel, was opposed to the idea of a truce, and wanted nothing more than to finish what was started centuries ago, and was thus not a part of this meeting.

The three of them stepped into the room, and while Azazel and Shemhazai took their seats, Baraqiel stopped and stared at Ichigo, just as he figured he would.

The two stared at each other for a few moments, drawing confusion from the others.

Then, Baraqiel smiled grimly.

"Well, this is an unexpected surprise. I would say that it's good to see you again, but considering where you're sitting, that might not be true." Baraqiel said with a sigh.

"It's been a while. I figured we would cross paths eventually, but I didn't think it would be this soon."

"You two know each other?"

"We've met. It doesn't really have any relevance to the meeting.

"I agree. Shall we begin?"

"In that case, let's start with who the newest addition is." Azazel asked as he looked at Ichigo with a curious gaze that had grown more intense when he and Baraqiel revealed that they knew each other.

"Of course. This is Serafall's new Queen, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Aside from Baraqiel, the eyes of the leaders of the Devils's two rival Factions widened considerably.

"The hero of the Winter War? That's quite the addition you got to your ranks, Sirzechs. Guess that explains how you managed to get the Youkai to reserve this place for us. So, what rank did he end up getting? High-Class?" Azazel commented with no little surprise.

"Ultimate-Class. He defeated Grayfia." Sirzechs corrected.

"Wow, now that's an impressive feat. Must have been by the skin of his teeth though. I can't imagine that that frigid wife of yours would go down so easily." Azazel whistled appreciatively.

"Actually…it got pretty one-sided once they both started using their full power."

A stunned silence followed

"…Your wife lost? Grayfia Lucifuge, the Silver-Haired Queen of Annihilation, who possesses power equal to one of the Original Maou, lost? To a newly Reincarnated Devil?" Azazel asked incredulously.

"Yes, that's actually one of the topic we wanted to discuss today. We have confirmed that Ichigo-kun is a Super Devil like us."

That certainly got their attention fast.

"A-Another Super Devil!? Furthermore, a Reincarnated Devil!? Is that even possible!?"

"Even if you ask us, we can't really answer since we don't know much about the Super Devil mutation either. But, that's still not the end of it. It appears that Ichigo-kun possesses the abilities of our Lord and Creator, Satan-sama."

For a moment, there was silence.

Then, pandemonium descended.

* * *

And I'm done with this chapter.

I actually wanted to add in more, but I felt the next part fit in better in the next chapter than this one.

I'm going to make this clear. I had a hard time writing this chapter, mostly because most of it ended up being one huge info dump, which, while integral to the setting of the story, I feel should never take up the majority of a chapter.

Second, and this is probably incredibly obvious, the meeting between the leaders of the three Factions was kinda forced and very abrupt, because I couldn't really think of another way for Ichigo, after becoming a Devil, to interact with Heaven, the Church or the Grigori without it being in a hostile manner on the other side's part.

I guess this is what I get for writing a chapter with only a vague idea of where I was going.

I hope that the next chapter will be of a higher quality, because I actually do know what I'll be writing. Mostly.

That's all for now. As always, please read and review.


	4. Life 3: Welcome Home

Past

The tantalizing smell of grilled pork filled the air, causing Ichigo's mouth to water slightly, and his stomach to growl, a sound thankfully covered up by the loud sizzling of oil.

This was a small, but rather famous ramen restaurant in Kyoto, with their specialty being serving grilled meat as a ramen topping rather than the conventional braised meat.

It wouldn't earn any Michelin Stars or anything, but it was very popular nonetheless, with a long line of customers, local and foreign, waiting outside from opening hour to closing hour, never seeming to decrease until the owner was forced to shoo them away.

Ichigo bemoaned the fact that he was not a customer, but one of the waiters.

He had spent 3 months travelling around Japan, taking in the sights and cultures, before finally returning to Kyoto.

During his travels, he had stopped by Kuou and Shuri's shrine a couple of times, just to converse with his new friends.

Daigo and Kasumi looked like they were considering trying again for a child, and Touji mentioned that he and his wife were considering having one of their own, though they had yet to come to a decision.

As for Baraqiel and Shuri…well, Ichigo wasn't too sure he wanted to know what they got up to at night, when they were alone.

There had been a very awkward moment when Ichigo had shown up at the shrine late at night, and had heard what could never, _ever_ be unheard from inside.

He promptly did an about face and left, finding lodgings in the ancient capital instead.

He really, _really_ had no interest in whatever fetishes the couple shared.

Once he was done travelling Japan, he set his sights on travelling the world next, but figured he should earn some money for it first.

So, he decided to get a job, and an apartment while he was at it.

He went to meet the real estate agent whose business card Yoruichi had given him.

The agent turned out to be a woman, a voluptuous woman with long black hair and yellow eyes, and a personality much like Yoruichi's.

Almost eerily so, in fact.

He could have sworn he saw her pupils turn into vertical slits for an instant, but when he blinked, they were just ordinary round pupils, indistinguishable from any other human's.

It was probably a trick of the light. Or at least, he hoped so.

He couldn't sense reiatsu anymore, but he got the feeling that the woman wasn't a human.

But even if she wasn't, there probably wasn't any problem.

Knowing he was bereft of all of his powers, Yoruichi wouldn't send him to anyone she didn't explicitly trust.

The real estate agent, Fuzen Ryouko, got him a pretty great bargain, a 2LDK apartment for a 30,000 yen monthly rent.

It was cheap, almost unbelievably so, considering that the apartment building was brand new and was located near Nijo Station.

It made him wonder whether there was something wrong with the apartment in question, but an inspection had not turned up anything that could be the cause.

And since it was new, he was pretty sure there weren't any Demi-Hollows attached to it.

Either she was better friends with Yoruichi than the former Captain had implied, or she liked him for some weird reason.

But either way, he finally had a place to tentatively call his own home.

Finding a job had been his next step.

He wasn't looking for a permanent job. Just one that was flexible enough to let him work just long enough for him to earn enough money for travelling, and maybe let him continue once he had returned to Japan.

Needless to say, with those conditions, it was exceedingly hard for him to find a job, especially considering he only had a high school diploma for credentials, not to mention his orange hair which had always served as a stigma against him.

On the fifth day though, he happened across an ad for this very ramen shop, looking for someone with cooking experience.

As he found out, one of the waitresses had gone on maternity leave, and was not expected back for about 3 months.

It may not have seemed like a huge problem, but this was a case where both the restaurant's size and popularity worked against it.

Because there were so many customers all day every day, the staff of this small restaurant needed all hands on deck to keep up with the orders.

Losing even just one waiter would slow the entire operation down immensely.

He approached the owner, who decided to take his chances with him, even overlooking his strange hair color.

He must have been pretty desperate at that point if he was willing to risk his restaurant's reputation with a supposed delinquent on the staff.

He had been doing this for about 5 weeks now, with no complaints from either the customers or the other staff, so he figured he must be doing something right.

He didn't do anything particularly fancy. He just directed customers to their tables, took their orders, served their food, clean the dishes when they left, and after closing, help to clean up the restaurant and wash the dishes.

Pretty standard, perhaps even dull by anyone else's standard.

It was perfect for him, and the pay was fairly decent for a menial job.

By the time the original waitress returned from maternity leave, he should already have enough to hit a couple of countries before needing more again.

*CLACK*

"Thank you! Welcome!"

Ichigo perked up at the sound of the wooden door that was the entrance sliding open, and yelled out the greeting as was customary in pretty much any Japanese restaurant as satisfied customers left the restaurant and were quickly replaced by the ones waiting outside.

He did pause for a moment, a tray carrying a piping hot bowl of ramen and of miso soup in his hand, when he saw a beautiful woman with golden blonde hair and matching eyes, dressed in a Miko attire of all things, accompanied by a young girl around the age of 6 or 7, who looked almost identical to her, probably her daughter, also dressed in the same clothes, enter the restaurant.

They were looking very out of place in a common ramen restaurant.

Ichigo frowned as he continued to study them, though he made sure to keep moving and serve the food he was carrying.

He knew most of the customers that came into the restaurant.

Leaving tourists, who obviously did not frequent the restaurant, the restaurant's customers were a pretty familiar crowd, the usual faces coming on the usual days, a large portion of which were female for some reason, and he had vaguely memorized all of them by now.

Despite their odd hair and eye color, these two did not seem to be foreigners, possessing Japanese facial features.

He had no idea who they were.

They could be newcomers from another prefecture who had come in search of the somewhat famous ramen, but somehow, he highly doubted that.

But for some reason, no one else, not the other customers nor the other staff, seem to think them odd, continuing what they were doing without a second glance.

That was pretty damn weird.

His suspicion increased when the woman's gaze fell on him, and her lips curled into a demure smile.

Something was definitely up.

The real estate agent, Fuzen Ryouko, had only seemed vaguely inhuman to him.

But there was nothing vague about this woman.

Even without the ability to sense reiatsu, she was giving such an immense feel of otherworldliness that it was truly a wonder that no one other than him was staring at her.

Extremely suspicious, in fact.

"Oi, Kurosaki, why're you just standing around? Show them to their seats!" One of the chefs hissed at him as he neared the counter to collect more ready dishes.

"Y-Yeah…"

It looked like he was the only one suspicious of the presumed mother-child pair.

Ichigo moved towards the odd pair.

Immediately, the daughter squeaked and ducked behind her mother, poking her head out to stare at him with an expression of awe and confusion.

Ichigo blinked, nonplussed at the odd occurrence.

The mother turned to look at her daughter with what could only be described as a chiding expression, causing the younger girl to pout back adorably in a manner that reminded Ichigo painfully of a younger Yuzu.

The bewitching woman turned back towards him, her smile returning.

Ichigo almost swallowed reflexively.

"Welcome. Table for two?" He managed to get out.

"Yes, please." The woman said in a mellifluous voice, causing a shiver to run down his spine for a reason completely separate from wariness.

"Right this way."

He quickly brought the pair to the recently vacated table in the center of the restaurant, pulling the seats out for them and quickly removing the previous patrons' dishes.

"Thank you." The woman expressed her gratitude, neatly holding her hakama before sitting down to avoid crumpling it.

"T-Thank you!" The little girl stuttered out as she did the same.

Ichigo smiled, hoping it didn't look too stiff, before indicating the menus laying at the edge of the table to them and bustling away.

He could still feel both of their gazes on his back, not even looking down at the menu.

"Hey, Iinagi-san, any idea who those two are?" Ichigo asked one of the other waiters, trying to confirm his suspicions.

"Hm? Nope. Never seen those two before. Probably tourists or something." Iinagi said after glancing at the pair and going back to what he was doing.

Ichigo's suspicions were all but confirmed.

Those two were not human.

Shinigami? Sent by Central 46 to track him down?

Or maybe Arrancar remnants from Aizen's army looking for revenge?

Neither possibility boded well for him, now that his powers were gone.

He looked back at them, meeting the older woman's gaze as she raised her hand, signaling that they were ready to order.

He looked around.

None of the other waiters seemed to notice.

Or more likely, she was doing something to make sure that no one other than him would notice.

He slowly moved towards them, taking his notepad and pen out, ready to record their orders, if that was really what they wanted…

"We'll have two Kitsune Udons, a bottle of sake, and a glass of orange juice, please."

…Which it apparently was.

"Understood."

Ichigo hurried away after taking their orders.

The rest of their patronage passed by normally.

He served them their food, went back to serving the other customers, moving back to the pair to refill their drinks when they asked for it.

Aside from them staring at him the entire time, it was so normal that it was actually making him even more paranoid.

He was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for shit to start blowing up.

He was pretty sure that even Central 46 wasn't crazy enough to start something when there were still so many humans around, but Arrancars had no such compunctions.

And the worst part was that he wasn't sure if he would be able to stop it.

He could have gone outside, but at this time of day, the streets were more crowded than the restaurant, especially since half of the pavement was dedicated to the waiting line of customers.

Going outside would just result in even more casualties if they started something.

There was literally nothing he could do.

His heart was practically about to rip itself out of his ribcage when the older woman asked for the bill.

If she was going to do something, it would be now.

His pulse quickened, the pounding of his heart audible in his ears as he watched her reach into her long sleeve…and pulled out a purse, pulling exact change from it and handing it to him.

Ichigo blinked, so disconcerted that his head was complete blank for a good five seconds, his body moving on autopilot to take the money from the woman.

By the time his brain rebooted, she and her daughter had already risen from their seats, moving towards the door.

…They weren't going to do anything?

Had his instincts been wrong? Maybe they really were just eccentric humans?

Somehow, Ichigo couldn't find it in him to believe he was that lucky.

*CLACK*

The wooden door slid open.

"Thank you! Welco-" Ichigo began to yell out the greeting, which quickly died in his throat when he saw the customers that were replacing the odd pair.

"Yo, Ichigo." A grinning tall man with brown eyes and long crimson hair tied in a high ponytail, tanned skin, dressed in a grey undershirt, an unbuttoned casual khaki jacket, dark blue trousers, and sneakers, greeted him with a wave.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" A short girl with purple eyes, black hair, light skin, dressed in a striped blouse, a denim miniskirt and loafers followed up with a smile.

Ichigo's two closest friends among the ranks of Gotei 13, Abarai Renji and Kuchiki Rukia, who he hadn't seen in over 3 years, had just walked in.

"You two…!"

They had changed quite a bit.

Renji's hair was even longer now, and his usual white bandanna around his forehead was now maroon.

Rukia's hair was slightly shorter and styled into a bob cut.

And most of all, the two of them were wearing normal clothes, instead of overly colorful out of style abominations that would have the fashion police all over them the moment they stepped out.

That was a result of Ichigo's painstaking attempts to get them to dress normally, and not attract unwanted attention every time they stepped out the door.

Soul Society's information on modern fashion was very, _very_ obsolete, as had been seen when the Arrancar Response Team had arrived in the human world.

Rukia was fine, since she had stayed in the human world for more than a month.

Yumichika and Rangiku too, since they were probably the only Shinigami in all of Gotei 13 who possessed anything resembling fashion sense.

But Renji, Ikkaku and Toshiro…

The first thing he had done was show them what actual modern fashion was, and actually paid for the clothes out of his own allowance.

Anything to get them out of those fashion disasters they had donned.

He was glad the lesson had stuck, or they would be sticking out like sore thumbs even in huge tourist spots.

"We heard from Urahara that you were here, so we decided to pay a visit. Looks like you're doing well, all things considered."

"Let's catch up."

"Yeah! Boss! Sorry, but can I take a break?" Ichigo shouted towards the kitchen, where the owner was making the noodles.

"Don't take too long!"

A muffled yell came from the back.

"Alright. You guys wanna go somewhere?"

"Anywhere is fine. Neither of us has been here before."

"Hm…well, there're too many places in Kyoto to see in one day, much less in my break time, so I guess we should just go with the closest place?"

"Sounds good."

The three of them left the restaurant, Ichigo leading them to the one of Kyoto's many tourist attractions, the one closest to their current location, Nijo Castle.

"By the way, Ichigo, who were those two we passed by at the restaurant? The mother and child wearing Miko attire?" Rukia asked him suddenly.

Ichigo froze.

In his excitement at seeing his friends again, he had completely forgotten about the odd pair.

It…didn't look like they were around anymore.

"Why do you ask?" He asked back.

"I don't know whether it's because they have little of it in the first place, or because they're suppressing it, but those two…their reiatsu…weren't those of a Shinigami or a Hollow. It was unlike anything I've ever felt before."

Ichigo felt another shiver run down his spine at his friend's words.

* * *

Present

It was understandably hard to restore order after that bombshell, but once the Angels and Fallen Angels had gotten all of their panic out of their system, and Ichigo had made it clear that he desired nothing but peace between the three Factions, they were able to resume the meeting, albeit with a drastically risen atmosphere of sheer tension.

The over-the-top reaction was understandable though.

Satan was known as YHWH's equal and opposite.

The latter was gone, Heaven's Angels and the Grigori's ranks were decimated, and while the same could be said of the 72 Pillars, it really didn't mean much when the Underworld now had _5_ Super Devils, making them easily the strongest of the three Biblical Factions.

As Sirzechs had said, from a pragmatic point of view, it wouldn't be illogical that the Devils would want to declare war with that much battle potential on their side.

In fact, even before Ichigo came along, the Devils already possessed enough power to crush their two rival Factions, thanks to the abnormal existences that were the current Yondai Maou.

The only reason the Second Great War had yet to occur was because the current Yondai Maou was advocates of peace between the Biblical Factions.

A law that had been in place since the formation of the Devils' council in the wake of the civil war was that when it came to major decisions that would affect the entirety of their society, such as the implementation of a new law or the official declaration of war against enemy Factions, both the Devils' council and the Yondai Maou have to agree to do so. If either side had a majority vote against the motion, it would be denied unequivocally.

It was thanks to that law that war had not yet erupted.

And they intended to keep it that way.

Not that Ichigo was objecting to their sentiment. He already had more than enough excitement to last him a lifetime, even one as long as a Devil's. He was fine with peace for the rest of his life.

Though, past experience led him to believe his wish for peace would likely remain as nothing more than an unfulfilled desire.

Trouble always found a way into his life one way or another, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it, so much so that Ichigo was beginning to wonder if he should give up on obtaining any semblance of a normal life.

In any case, the meeting passed without any further incident, and the Four Great Seraphs and the three leaders of the Grigori were now preparing to leave.

"Well, this has been a rather interesting meeting." Azazel commented lightly.

Among the 7, he had been the one with the least explosive reaction, only showing widened eyes and an expression of interest.

The Viceroy of the Fallen Angels was one cool customer.

"I'm not sure interesting is the right word to use…" Michael retorted, pinching his temple.

The same could not be said for the leader of Heaven, who had looked like he was about to shit his fancy robes when Sirzechs made the announcement.

Not that his two brothers and sister were much better.

Raphael and Uriel looked like they were about to attack him, and probably would have if Shemhaza and Baraqiel hadn't held them back, and Gabriel outright passed out, which meant that they had to wait for her to regain consciousness before Ichigo could tell them that he was a proponent for peace.

The other 2 Fallen Angels had not reacted quite as badly, simply allowing shocked and grim expressions to surface, but had reacted beyond that.

They had taken one look at Azazel, and seemed to decide that if their leader wasn't going to say anything, neither would they.

The 7, all of whom were actually siblings even after 3 of them had fallen, began to file out the door.

Ichigo thought it was weird that Ajuka and Falbium were rising from their seats as well, but Serafall and Sirzechs weren't following suit.

And since his King wasn't leaving, Ichigo took it to mean that he wasn't leaving either.

It didn't escape the other leaders' notice either.

"You three aren't leaving?"

"No, we have a meeting with Yasaka-dono soon."

"Kyoto's Princess…? Oh right, you owe them a favor for letting us use this place, huh?"

"That's right. Their condition was…a meeting with Ichigo-kun."

"Wait, what?" Ichigo cried out in alarm.

That was the first time he was hearing anything about this.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo-kun, but they were very adamant about this. In return for allowing us to use this meeting place, the Kyoto Youkai wish to meet you. Otherwise, they would extort an exuberant price from us like they usually do." Sirzechs said with an apologetic expression on his face.

Politics won out over individual rights, apparently.

"Why!?"

At that, everyone, literally everyone, from Michael and the other Great Seraphs, to Azazel, Shemhaza and Baraqiel, and even the Yondai Maou, stared at him with expressions of mixed disbelief and exasperation.

"Why, he asks. Have you perhaps forgotten what you did four years ago? Gained beyond godlike power? Defeated a madman hell-bent on fucking up Japan's soul cycle? Saved all of Japan, and probably the rest of the world in the process? Ringing any bells? They'll probably prostrate themselves before you, or maybe erect a giant gold statue of you." Azazel said.

Ichigo thought he was just joking, but judging by the serious look on his face, that wasn't the case.

The former human's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Was it really that big of a deal? Aizen was strong and all, but from what I've heard, there should be quite a number of beings who could have put him down just as easily as I did." Ichigo asked, thinking of the World's Top 10 Strongest.

If any of them were as powerful as they were made out to be, surely they could have kicked Aizen's ass pretty easily?

Even when fused with the Hogyoku, undergoing several evolutions and gaining immortality, one hit from Mugetsu had been enough to bring him to his lowest, allowing Kisuke to seal him with that delayed Kido of his.

If Ichigo could do that with a power he had obtained literally an hour before even using it, surely the Top 10, possessing immense powers and countless millennia of wisdom and experience, could have done the job as well?

"That's true, Ichigo-kun, even outside of the Top 10, I can think of a dozen beings that could have accomplished the same feat that you had, but the problem was Aizen Sosuke's evolution speed. Think back. How many times did he evolve in the span of just one hour?"

Ichigo paused.

If that chrysalis stage he fought Ichigo's father, Kisuke and Yoruichi in was counted, Aizen had evolved a grand total of 4 times in roughly 1 hour, give or take a few minutes, gaining even greater power with each evolution.

"Get it now? With that absurd speed, it's entirely possible that by the time anyone else responded and arrived at the scene, Aizen Sosuke would have already evolved to a level where only the Infinite Dragon God or the True Dragon themselves would be powerful enough to stop him. If you hadn't defeated him in time, the world might be in shambles by now. That's why what you did was a very big deal. Kurosaki Ichigo, we aren't exaggerating when we say that you saved the world that day."

Ichigo felt the blood draining from his face at Azazel's words.

He hadn't really thought about what would have happened if he had managed to learn the Final Getsuga Tensho in time to stop Aizen from going any further.

In hindsight, it should have been pretty obvious.

With one evolution, Aizen had gone from being pressed by his father alone to easily overpowering the combined forces of Isshin, Kisuke and Yoruichi, though admittedly, none of the three had used their Bankai to fight.

His reiatsu grew so monstrous that even Ichigo could tell just how unbelievably outclassed he had been at the time.

With a second evolution, Aizen's reiatsu had become transcendent, disintegrating human souls simply by being in close proximity to them, and able to damage the body of a competent Captain-class Shinigami like Ichimaru Gin with mere physical contact.

A third evolution, and Aizen's physical strength grew to the point where the mere swing of his sword had been enough to tear a good portion of the nearby ground apart, even when the blow itself had been stopped.

With the final evolution, Aizen had grown to the point where one of his techniques had been so immense that it had exploded with the force of a nuke, and had been powerful enough at point blank range to scorch Ichigo's left arm, even though the former Substitute Shinigami had obtained an even higher level of transcendence at the time.

He hadn't thought about it since he had defeated him, but if Aizen had been allowed to grow any stronger…how monstrous would he have eventually become?

Would the Final Getsuga Tensho have been enough to stop him?

Ichigo shivered at the thought of an even stronger Aizen Sosuke, and what that would have meant for Soul Society, and the rest of the world.

"So…that's why the Kyoto Youkai are interested in me?"

"Not just them. Every Faction around the world has had their eyes on you ever since that day. The Devils just happened to get you on their side first, and trust me, not a lot of people are going to be very happy about that."

Ichigo scowled.

"What the hell am I supposed to be? Some kind of new toy a bunch of kids are fighting over?"

Azazel chuckled darkly, a humorless smile appearing on his face.

"Hate to break this to you, kid, but to most of them, that's exactly what you are."

* * *

Ichigo walked up a long flight of stairs, Sirzechs and Serafall in front of him.

While the Four Great Seraphs, the three leaders of the Grigori, Ajuka and Falbium returned to their respective domains, the three of them proceeded even deeper into the strange city of Youkai.

Near the massive red Torii that they had passed through to enter this place, the buildings were rather modern, but as they went further in…well, it was time was regressing around them.

The architecture grew older and older the deeper they went in, proceeding from a modern Heisei Period city, to a Showa Period city, the Taisho Period, the Meiji Period, and when they reached what appeared to be the heart of this strange place, it appeared to have regressed back to the same Edo Period that Soul Society seemed to be perpetually stuck in.

He also noted that the cities were separated from each other by massive ramparts that stretched on further than he could see, and equally massive gates that seemed to keep going up and up to loom over him, heavily guarded by platoons of armed Youkai.

And the deeper they went in, the stronger the residents' reiatsu became.

In the Heisei Period city, the reiatsu permeating the place was a huge jumbled mess, varying in both quantity and texture, which Ichigo took to mean that they were different species of Youkai of differing age and power, though they all looked so human that normal humans who did not have the ability to sense the supernatural would not blink twice at them.

In the Showa Period city, the reiatsu was still a huge mess, but they all had similar levels of reiatsu, about the same level as some of the Middle-Class Devils Ichigo had met thus far.

In the Taisho Period city, their general level of reiatsu grew greater. Ichigo ranked them as the same level as most seated Shinigami, or the average High-Class Devil.

In the Meiji Period City, the residents were as strong as the average Lieutenant.

And here in the Edo Period City, the biggest of the five cities and the heart of the realm, the reiatsu levels were once again a huge mess, going as low as unseated Shinigami to almost as high as an average Captain.

And there was a lot, _a lot_ of Youkai, as in somewhere in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands.

He also noticed that in the four inner cities, the residents seemed to have no qualms about assuming what he presumed were their usual forms.

Ichigo had walked past a Kasa-Obake, a Youkai possessing the form of an old bamboo umbrella, possessing a single eye, two arms and hoping around on one leg, a Nurikabe, a Youkai that took the form of a large concrete wall, supposedly appearing to impede travelling humans at night, and a Karasu-Tengu, an anthropomorphic crow dressed in a Jinbei, amongst many other Youkai.

Serafall explained to him that this was an artificial dimension that the Kyoto Youkai had created to live in, separate from the human world, though with multiple gates connecting them throughout the realm, taking the form of Torii gates, which were built to repel normal humans.

The layout of the realm was fairly circular, separated into 5 concentric circles.

The outermost circle, the city with Heishi Period architecture, was where the Youkai who interacted with the human world in some capacity lived. Most of the gates connected to the human world were also located there.

Deeper inside, the 3 middle circles, in other words, the Showa Period city, the Taisho Period city and the Meiji Period city made up the realm's lines of defense. During a time of crisis, like an invasion, the gates he had seen would be closed and locked, with Youkai taking positions along the ramparts to attack invaders.

That made sense, he supposed.

The residents of the three cities were all probably warriors, with each city having a certain level of power, with the Showa Period city having the weakest warriors and the Meiji Period city having the strongest.

If intruders broke through one line of defense, they would be met by another, stronger one, and if they broke through that too, they would meet the final, strongest line of defense.

And the massive Edo Period city they were currently in was the center of the realm, easily the biggest of the 5 cities, where most of the Youkai lived, from the common citizen to the nobility, which explained the huge range of reiatsu levels.

There were Youkai as weak as the average Rukongai resident, mostly commoner children who had yet to grow sufficiently to manifest any real power, and then there were Youkai whose reiatsu was as massive as any Captain, most of them concentrated at wherever the flight of stairs they were ascending led.

Speaking of which…

"Who exactly are we meeting again?"

"Yasaka-dono. She is the Princess, the leader of the Kyoto Youkai, the Kyuubi who governs the supernatural side of Japan."

"…A Kyuubi? As in a Kitsune? Like Tamamo-no-Mae?"

Ichigo immediately knew he had said something wrong, because both Sirzechs and Serafall winced.

"Ah, Ichigo-chan, just a word of advice when dealing with the Kyoto Youkai. Don't ever mention Tamamo-no-Mae, Shuten Douji or Emperor Sutoku to their faces. They _really_ don't like that. Especially Tamamo-no-Mae. _Do not ever_ speak her name in front of Yasaka-chan, or any Youkai for that matter." Serafall said with a shiver, looking slightly disconcerted, which was a huge turn for her, considering her usual overly cheery attitude.

There had to be a story behind that.

He also noted that the names she had mentioned were those of Japan's three most infamous Youkai, who had terrorized Japan in their own way.

Tamamo-no-Mae, the Golden-Furred White-Faced Nine-Tailed Fox, who had disguised herself as a courtesan and almost succeeded in killing the then Emperor of Japan.

Shuten Douji, a terrible Oni, who, along with a horde of his kin, had terrorized ancient Kyoto by kidnapping and eating the daughters of noble families alive.

And of course, the most infamous of the three, Emperor Sutoku, who had turned into a Dai-Tengu after his death, and cursed the royal family and imperial court who had usurped his position.

In fact, Emperor Sutoku's curse had supposedly occurred around the same time as the Tamamo-no-Mae incident, and it was reportedly the curses of the two put together that led to the end of the dynasty.

All three of them gave all Youkai in general a bad name, so he could definitely see why they were considered taboo.

"But, returning to your question, yes, Yasaka-hime is indeed a Kyuubi-no-Kitsune. One of the only two among the Kyoto Youkai, the other being her daughter, Kunou-hime."

"Only two? Are Kyuubi that rare?"

"Yes. There are only 2 ways to become a Kyuubi. The first way is the common method, but also the one that has seen little success. Most Kitsune start out with one tail, and only gain their second tail after 100 years, and their third tail 100 years after that, and so on. In other words, in order to ascend to a Kyuubi, the average Kitsune has to survive for 800 years. Furthermore, they cannot allow any of their already acquired tails to be damaged, or their ascension stops completely. Given those conditions, you can see why this method so rarely succeeds."

Ichigo nodded.

Those were some seriously strict conditions.

If the Kyoto Youkai had to deal with even half as much shit as he did during his tenure as a Substitute Shinigami, he imagined that didn't bode well for their numbers.

Hell, the Kitsune didn't even have to die. From what Sirzechs had said, if any of their tails sustained injury, they would no longer be able to ascend any further.

Ichigo mentally noted in the back of his mind that that was similar to how Adjuchas-level Hollows would not be able to evolve any further if a part of them was eaten by another Hollow.

"…You said that was the common method. Does that mean that there's another method?"

Sirzechs nodded.

"Yes. Much like how children conceived between Devils powerful enough to manifest multiple pairs of wings have a chance of being born already possessing the power to have multiple pairs themselves, the children conceived between Kitsune with multiple tails will also have a chance of being born possessing multiple tails. However, much like Devils, there is no way of knowing for sure how many tails they will have until they are born. A child conceived between a Hachibi-no-Kitsune and a Nibi-no-Kitsune can have anywhere from 1 to 8 tails."

"I see. In that case, a child born of a Kyuubi also has a chance of being born a Kyuubi as well?"

"Not just that. The firstborn of a Kyuubi will always invariably also be a Kyuubi. This holds true regardless of how many tails the other parent has. In fact, even if the other parent was a completely different species altogether, even a human, as long as one of the parents is a Kyuubi who has not had a child before, the firstborn will always be a full-blooded Kyuubi-no-Kitsune."

Ichigo blinked.

He was no biologist, but he was pretty sure there weren't any guarantees when it came to genetics.

Judging by how even Devils could have birth defects, the same probably held true even for the supernatural.

"There's no way that's natural, right?"

"Of course not. I have no proof, but I believe that this phenomenon is the result of a blessing upon the Kitsune race by the Shinto Gods to make up for the lost numbers."

"Lost numbers…does that mean that there were more Kyuubi in the past?"

"Yes. In fact, this ties in with why Tamamo-no-Mae's name is considered a taboo subject among the Kyoto Youkai. You must be aware of the legend that Tamamo-no-Mae had disguised herself as a courtesan and earned the favor of the then Emperor of Japan?"

"Yeah, it's pretty famous folklore. I don't think anyone alive in Japan today hasn't heard it at least once in their life."

"Then you also know of the part where she was exposed by Abe-no-Yasuchika, and subsequently chased and killed by a squad of soldiers, led by Kazusanosuke and Miuranosuke, in the plains of Nasu."

"Of course. It's part of the legend, and depending on which version you read, she embedded her own soul into a stone, turning it into a Sesshoseki, causing it to perpetually release poisonous gas until a Buddhist monk exorcised her soul from it."

"That part is a lie. Tamamo-no-Mae did not die on the plains of Nasu, though she did indeed curse a stone and turned it into a Sesshoseki. She fooled the soldiers into believing they had killed her, and escaped from them."

"…Say what?"

"To fully tell the story, I need to explain Tamamo-no-Mae's origin. Tamamo-no-Mae was born around three and a half millennia ago as Fumiko, the child of another Kyuubi, the ruler of the Kyoto Youkai 3 generations ago, Kazue-hime. I do not know how many tails she was born with, but she eventually became a Kyuubi. An exceptionally talented one at that, having a talent for Youjutsu, the mystic arts of the Youkai, never seen before. I believe that Kazue-hime would have named Fumiko her successor if she had not done what she did. Shortly after becoming a Kyuubi, she disappeared from Japan and entered China during the late Shang Dynasty. She disguised herself as a human woman, Daji, and became the King Zhou, the last King of the Shang Dynasty's favorite concubine."

"I think I've heard that story somewhere. She was famous for indulging in human torture, right?"

"Correct. Fumiko, or Daji, as she was known as at the time, reveled in the pain of humans, and thus invented many torture methods to satisfy her craving. The most famous is the Pao Lao, the Burning Pillar. Have you heard of it?"

"Um…no, but it sounds painful."

"It is. The Pao Lao is a large bronze cylinder covered in oil, heated to scorching temperatures by a charcoal fire beneath it. The victim is then forced to stand atop the cylinder. Because of the heat, the victim has to continuously shift their feet to avoid burning them. But because of the slippery surface , it is extremely difficult to maintain balance, and if they fall into the charcoal fire below, they will burn to death. Daji invented it so that she could watch her victims writhe in agony atop the cylinder before falling off and burning to death."

Ichigo grimaced.

That was sadistic.

"Thankfully, her actions were discovered by the Taoist Gods, who immediately sent a protest to the Shinto Gods, who in turn informed Kazue-hime of her erstwhile daughter's atrocities. Kazue-hime immediately disowned her and permitted the Taoist Gods to do as they saw fit with her. Soon afterwards, the forces of the man who would become the first King of the Zhou Dynasty, led by Jiang Ziya, a saint sent by the Taoist Gods, overthrew King Zhou. However, Daji managed to escape to the Magadha Kingdom in India, where she proceeded to disguise herself as another human woman, Lady Kayo, and became King Kalmashapada's consort. With a combination of her natural charm and mystic arts, she dominated his mind and caused him to commit unspeakable evils. Eating children and decapitating thousands of men were just some of them."

Ichigo's grimace turned into a full expression of pure disgust.

The torture had been bad enough, but making a man eat children?

That was just sick.

"She fled India once the Hindu Gods discovered her for some reason, and returned to China, where she lay dormant for 3 centuries to let the heat die down. Then, in 779 BC, she disguised herself as Bao Si, a beautiful woman who earned the favor of King You of the Zhou Dynasty, who deposed his own Queen and heir so that he could install Bao Si as his new Queen instead. Like she had with King Kalmashapada, she charmed King You, but did it with her natural beauty instead of directly manipulating him with Youjutsu to avoid attracting attention from the Taoist Gods. She cemented herself as a woman who rarely smiled, and in an attempt to make her happy, King You committed many acts of depravity and foolishness, including summoning the armies of his vassal states for no reason other than to let Bao Si laugh at them when they arrived expecting a battle, only to find nothing of the sort. Eventually, his vassal states and his own nobles and imperial court betrayed him, leading to his death, and her escape once again. This time, she laid low for more than a millennium before returning to Japan, where she disguised herself as the girl who would become known as Misukume, and then Tamamo-no-Mae. The legends of her told from this point up until the discovery of her true nature by Abe-no-Yasuchika are all true. However, like I said before, she was not killed on the plains of Nasu. She tricked her pursuers and escaped. This time, she returned to Kyoto. More specifically, she returned here." Sirzechs said, gesturing to the surroundings.

Ichigo choked.

She actually had the guts to return home after what she had done?

"Her intention was to install herself as the new ruler of the Kyoto Youkai. To that end, she started a war against the Kyoto Youkai of that time, and though she was eventually defeated and repelled, the cost was great. Despite being alone, she was older than most Youkai, and had the skill and experience to prove it. Many Youkai lost their lives in that war, including most of the elder Kitsune, and the ruler of Kyoto Youkai at the time, Nanami-hime. Another Kyuubi, Kazue-hime's granddaughter, the third child born of her third child. In other words, Tamamo-no-Mae's own niece. And also Yasaka-hime's mother."

Ichigo felt his heart sink as he realized the implications of Sirzechs's words.

"Yes, it is as you are thinking. On top of all of the atrocities she had already committed up to that point, Tamamo-no-Mae also committed familicide. All of her previous sins, her massacre of countless Youkai and the murder of her own kin are the reasons she is particularly despised by the Kyoto Youkai."

Ichigo certainly didn't blame them.

If he was in their position, he would hate her with a passion as well.

But, wait…

"If she was only repelled, does that mean she's still alive?"

"It hasn't been confirmed, but given that she has all the tenacity of a cockroach, yes, odds are that she's still alive somewhere, plotting her next move."

Ichigo scowled.

He didn't think he had ever wished someone dead before.

Not since Grand Fisher, anyway.

But Tamamo-no-Mae? She was quickly approaching that point.

If Ichigo ever met her, he made a note to take her out on principle.

"Ah, we have arrived. We will have to end the conversation here." Sirzechs spoke, turning back to face the front.

Ichigo noticed that they had finally reached the top of the long flight of stairs, passing underneath yet another massive red Torii.

And the moment Ichigo passed under the structure, he found himself before the massive ornate gates of an even bigger palace that made Las Noches look cute in comparison.

It was a traditional Japanese-style palace, just blown up to ridiculous proportions, surrounded by four tall stone ramparts with the ornate gate located on the wall they were currently standing in front of.

And standing at either side of the gate was a massive humanoid creature, one with red skin standing at the right side and one with blue skin standing at the left, wielding a proportionately huge spear in the hand closer to the gate and an old fashioned lantern in the other.

Ichigo recognized them as Oni, the Japanese equivalent of the well-known Western monsters, the Troll and the Ogre.

Most depictions he had seen of Oni had him picturing them as huge, rotund monsters that were bald and almost completely naked, save for a strange tiger-skin loincloth, wielding a Kanabo, a rather crude club-like weapon, with a savage gleam in their eyes.

The Oni in front of him were fairly different.

They were large, definitely, but they were also definitely not fat.

In fact, their musculature was well-defined, with huge builds that made Kenpachi seem like a twig.

They weren't dressed in the most sophisticated of clothes, wearing a simple brown happi each that thankfully extended down to their thighs, covering up the sensitive bits that Ichigo really did not want to see, but it was certainly a step up from a little loincloth.

And the serious light in their eyes at they stared unflinchingly ahead at seemingly nothing in particular made him think that they were more intelligent than most media tended to portray.

At least intelligent enough to expertly wield the spears they were holding and perform their duties as gatekeepers properly.

The three of them approached the gate, and the moment they got close enough…

*CLANG*

The two Oni shifted the spears in their hand, causing them to fall towards and intersect each other in an X-shape, the metal shafts clanging noisily as they met, blocking the gate.

"Halt. Only authorized personnel are allowed to enter the palace." Both of them growled in synchronized identical crushing voices, sounding like gravel grinding against each other.

"We are Sirzechs Lucifer, Serafall Leviathan and Kurosaki Ichigo of the Underworld. Yasaka-hime is expecting us." Sirzechs declared formally to the guards.

The Red and Blue Oni's eyes widened for an instant as their eyes flitted between the three of them, lingering on Ichigo the longest, before they frowned in suspicion.

"Unless you can produce proof that you are who you claim to be, we cannot allow you to enter the palace. Are you willing to submit yourselves to inspection?" They asked, still sounding extremely suspicious.

Ichigo frowned.

It was perfectly understandable that they would be hyper vigilant in keeping possible intruders out of the palace, but an inspection was a pretty big leap, not to mention a huge invasion of privacy, especially when the inspected were foreign dignitaries.

He would have thought they would at least first ask for someone inside the palace to confirm that their leader had indeed invited them.

Plus, leaving him aside, Sirzechs and Serafall should be pretty distinctive, considering they were 2 of only 6 Super Devils in existence.

Pretty hard to mistake them for anyone else, and vice versa.

Then, there was the whole 'every Faction around the world was interested in him' thing that Azazel told him about.

If he was really such a big deal, he would have thought that they would be able to recognize him on sight.

Maybe it was because he was now a Devil?

It was fairly recent news, so it might not have reached all ears yet.

Or was something else going on?

Judging by the frowns on Sirzechs's and Serafall's faces, they thought it was weird too.

"…It appears we have no choice. We agree to the-"

"There will be no need for that. Aomaru, Akamaru, stand down." An elderly, cultured voice ordered from behind them.

Ichigo turned to see a Karasu Tengu appearing from the Torii, clad in crimson samurai armor, looking rather dignified.

Well, about as dignified as an anthropomorphic crow could look without being ridiculous as well.

And trailing behind him, sulking with her face turned resolutely to the ground, was a blonde-haired, golden-eyed girl dressed in miko attire, with golden-furred vulpine ears atop her head and nine luxurious golden tails flowing behind her.

A Kyuubi.

Ichigo blinked, feeling distant bells ringing in his head.

Considering that Sirzechs had just told him that there were only two Kyuubi among the Kyoto Youkai, and her physical age, plus apparent childish personality, it wasn't hard to guess who she was.

Kunou, the daughter of the leader of the Kyoto Youkai.

But that wasn't what was ringing a bell.

He was sure he had seen her somewhere before.

"Yogarasu-sama." The two Oni greeted respectfully, and stood ramrod straight as the Karasu Tengi approached.

He must be some kind of bigshot.

"As you can see, I have found Kunou-hime. There is no longer a need for the heightened security. You may lower your spears." The Karasu Tengu spoke with a soft, but cultured and authoritative voice, one that had an underlying current of an immensely strong iron will.

"Yes sir."

The two Oni pulled their spears back, unblocking the gate.

"I apologize. Kunou-hime frequently leaves the palace unattended, but we cannot ignore the possibility that she had been abducted, which is why the palace is on high alert." The Karasu Tengu apologized as he bowed deeply to the three of them.

"Please, we understand. There is no need to apologize. Ichigo-kun, allow me to introduce you. This is Yogarasu-dono. He is Yasaka-hime's chief advisor and the head of the Kyoto Youkai's Imperial Guard."

"Um…pleased to meet you." Ichigo greeted and bowed.

"It is an honor to meet the hero who saved our country from its greatest crisis to date. Kunou-hime, please introduce yourself…Kunou-hime?" Yogarasu spoke, just a bit of awe mixed in with respect in his voice.

But when he had addressed Kunou, his tone changed into a confused one.

Ichigo looked down at the little Kyuubi, only to see that she had hidden herself behind Yogarasu, her head sticking out, and was staring at him with an expression of awe.

Okay, seriously, where had he seen that before?

"Kunou-hime?" Yogarasu asked again, this time sounding concerned.

"Hawaah!? W-What is it, Yogarasu!?" Kunou jolted and cried out in a slightly squeaky voice.

"Are you feeling unwell? If you are, I will call for Shiranui-sama to attend to you."

"N-No, there is no need for that! I'm perfectly fine!"

"I see. Then, please introduce yourself to our guests, Kunou-hime."

"G-Greetings, I am-No, I mean…We are Kunou, Princess of the Kitsune, daughter of Yasaka, the Ruler of Kyoto, Queen of the Kitsune and the leader of the Kyoto Youkai." Kunou said as she stepped out from behind Yogarasu and presented herself, correcting herself halfway through.

Ichigo noted the awkward use of the royal 'we', as though she wasn't used to saying it.

Yogarasu looked like he was having a headache.

"I apologize again. Kunou-hime is still in the process of learning etiquette, and has yet to progress very far. Though she would certainly be farther ahead if she did not frequently escape from her lessons." Yogarasu said with a slightly exasperated look.

He had muttered the last part, as though complaining to himself, but he had failed to lower his voice sufficiently, and everyone present had heard him.

Kunou turned bright red and started stamping her foot in an exaggerated manner as she pouted at him.

"Yogarasu!" She whined as she threw a tantrum, which was only serving to make her look less like a princess and more like a normal child of her age group.

Something clicked in Ichigo's head, and he finally remembered where he had met her.

"You…You're that girl from the ramen restaurant." Ichigo realized, remembering her, without the fox ears and tails, coming into the restaurant with an older, almost identical looking woman, making it literally the most heart pounding day of Ichigo's life since the end of the Winter War.

Kunou froze when she heard him speak, and turned to stare at him with an expression much like that of a deer caught in headlights, before blushing and looking down at her feet bashfully.

Sirzechs and Serafall looked at him, and then at Kunou, and then back to him.

"…You two know each other?"

"'Know' is a bit too strong of a word. We met once, about a year ago, when I was working at a ramen restaurant. She came with a woman who I assumed was her mother, but I didn't get either of their names, nor did they offer them. They pretty much just sat down, ate and stared at me the whole time." Ichigo replied.

Something about this situation seemed a little strange.

It was giving him a certain sense of déjà vu, like he had been asked the same question before.

As in literally just an hour ago.

"…Ichigo-chan, you aren't going to turn out to know at least one person from every Faction around the world, are you?" Serafall deadpanned.

Ichigo immediately opened his mouth to answer no, but thought better of it and closed it before he ended putting his foot in it.

He ended up meeting a Fallen Angel leader and the Princess of the Kyoto Youkai a whole year before he even found out who they really were.

And that was all within 3 months, in Japan alone.

Considering that he had spent the better part of the last year visiting parts of Asia and Europe, there actually was a good chance he had met at least one or two supernatural beings without even knowing it at the time.

He certainly had enough strange encounters abroad for it to be possible.

He was saved from having to answer when Yogarasu started talking.

"Ah yes, come to think of it, we did hear a report that you had settled in Kyoto for a short while. Yasaka-hime insisted on going to see you herself and brought Kunou-hime with her while we kept vigil from a distance. Yasaka-hime had a rather favorable impression of you." Yogarasu said as he stroked the feathers on his chin like an old man would a beard.

"Then, the woman back then was…"

"Yasaka-hime, yes. Shall we proceed? She is waiting for you."

Yogarasu gestured for them to follow him.

The Karasu Tengu led them through the gates and into the palace grounds.

It was a beautiful sight.

Ichigo had once seen the Kuchiki estate after Aizen's defection.

He had thought it was beautiful as well, with a massive promenade garden, filled with various plant life, some of which might not even be found on Earth anymore, and a koi pond, a staple in any upper-class Japanese home.

Byakuya did a good job of keeping the place beyond presentable.

But even that did not compare to the sheer grandeur of this palace.

Even the size of the garden here, flowers of various colors all in full bloom, alone already exceeded the entire Kuchiki estate, and this was only the part in his immediate surroundings.

Considering how massive it looked from outside the gates, the whole place might be as big as Seireitei itself.

As big as the Kuchiki estate was, it was still located inside the boundaries of Seireitei, and while the Four Noble Clans of Soul Society did each possess quite a considerable land space when compared to the rest of the citadel, it was still only a portion of it.

And the citadel was rather small if it were to be compared to say, Rukongai, which boasted an immense amount of land space despite the deplorable conditions of its residents.

Thus, as beautiful as the Kuchiki estate was, it really wasn't that much more splendid than a traditional upper-class Japanese estate in the human world.

This place was on a completely different level.

The Edo Period city that was the center of the realm was the biggest among the 5 cities. In terms of area, it probably had twice the amount of land space than the other 4 cities put together.

And while slightly over half of that land space was devoted to the homes of commoners and various commercial and industrial areas, the rest was devoted to this palace, and it showed.

Ichigo didn't think there was any private residence in all of Japan that had enough land space to build a full-sized pagoda, like the one he was looking at right now.

Furthermore, it wasn't even the centerpiece of this part of the garden.

It was located in a small isolated part, as though it was added as an afterthought, like a tiny ornament in an ordinary garden that didn't take up much space and easily forgotten.

If it was only in terms of land space, the Sitri estate, or even Serafall's personal estate might have this place beat, but most of their territory was undeveloped land, since a good part was left aside to be split among servants and peerage members.

It was almost something out of a fairy tale, something that couldn't be found in the human world, so much so that Ichigo couldn't help but stare.

He quickly snapped himself out of his daze and went to catch up with the rest of the group, who were entering the actual building without even glancing at the splendid garden.

The two Maou were no strangers to extravagance, and it was probably no strange sight for Yogarasu, considering that he lived and worked in the palace, especially if he was as old as Ichigo thought he was.

The same went for Kunou…

…Hm?

Ichigo noticed something wrong with the scene in front of him.

Yogarasu, Sirzechs, Serafall and himself.

That was four.

Someone was missing.

Ichigo turned around to find Kunou trailing behind him, staring at him with wide eyes, which grew almost comically huge when she realized that he had caught her doing so.

Ichigo quirked an eyebrow.

"Something wrong?"

"N-No, I'm-We are fine!" Kunou stuttered, correcting herself again to use the royal 'we'.

"You know, if that's too difficult, you can just speak casually. I don't mind. I'm not exactly a stickler for manners."

Kunou gained a complicated expression on her face when she heard his words, a sort of mix between elation, like she had just been told her birthday had come early, and horror, like she had just heard something incredibly blasphemous.

He supposed the importance of etiquette had been impressed upon her since the day she was born, so no matter how bad she actually was with it, suddenly being told that she didn't have to bother with it was probably rather jarring.

"B-B-But…"

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." He assured her, absentmindedly planting a palm gently on her head, just between her vulpine ears and rubbing the spot gently, like he would with the head of a cat or a dog.

"Hawaah!?" She cried out as she trembled beneath his palm, causing Ichigo to retract his hand like he had just received an electric shock.

"Sorry, did that hurt?"

"N-No, we were…I was just startled…" She muttered, her cheeks gaining a red hue as her hands moved to touch the spot he had been rubbing.

"If you don't like it, I won't do it again."

"No, it wasn't an unpleasant feeling…Y-You may continue if you like! I grant you permission!" She declared pompously as she placed her hands on her hips and puffed her chest out in an exaggerated swagger.

Ichigo smiled.

She reminded him mostly of Yuzu, but there was a part of her that resembled Karin as well.

He placed his palm back on her head and resumed the gentle ministrations, causing her to shudder before relaxing into the touch, her nine tails beginning to swish back and forth lazily through the air.

"Come on, let's keep moving." Ichigo said as he gently pushed on her scalp, prompting her to resume walking.

The two of them quickly caught up with the other three, entering the palace proper.

The interior of the palace seemed like an ordinary Japanese mansion, other than the fact that it was blown up to comfortably fit someone of Jidanbo's size.

There was a certain feel to the place, a type of ambient reishi that felt different compared to that of Soul Society, Hueco Mundo or the human world.

He had vaguely felt it ever since he entered this realm, but in the palace it was particularly concentrated, so much that he could feel it even without any conscious effort on his part.

That was strange, especially since reishi was supposed to be universal, not possessing unique properties like the reiatsu of individuals.

Rather than a different type of reishi, it was like there was something else mixed in with it.

Something similar, but ultimately different.

Something that felt like…well, nature, for lack of a better word.

Something that was missing from the human world, or rather, something that had been destroyed by civilization.

"Is something wrong? You're frowning quite heavily."

This time, his and Kunou's places were switched, with her asking him the question.

"No, just felt a weird energy in the air."

"Really? It doesn't feel any different than it usually does…"

"Then, it must be something unique to this realm. I've never felt anything like it in the human world."

Or in Soul Society, or Hueco Mundo, or Hell for that matter.

Soul Society and Hueco Mundo both had an immensely dense atmosphere of reishi, much more than the human world, but that was about it.

Hell had its miasma in addition to its own dense reishi concentration, and the miasma existed in such low concentrations in the Underworld, the part of Hell that the Devils and Fallen Angels lived in, that it couldn't be detected unless one were to purposely look for it.

Whatever this strange energy was, it was different from any realm Ichigo had been in.

"Hm…Oh, that's probably natural energy!"

"Natural…energy?"

"Yeah! This place has a lot of it! Come to think of it, when I went to the human world, I couldn't feel much natural energy…I asked Okaa-sama about it, but she didn't answer me. She just looked very sad…"

"Ah yes, the tragedy of human civilization."

Ichigo turned to look at Yogarasu, who was looking back at him with a forlorn expression.

"The human world once teemed with natural energy as well. However, those days have long since passed. You would be hard-pressed to find any location in the human world with a decent amount of natural energy these days."

"What is this natural energy?"

"It is exactly as it sounds. It is the energy of the world itself. To put it in Shinigami terms, it would be 'the reiryoku and reiatsu of the Earth itself'."

"…The Earth has reiryoku and reiastu?"

"Yes. Contrary to popular human belief, the Earth has its own sentience, its own soul. We call it Gaia." Sirzechs explained.

"Isn't that the Greek Primordial Goddess?"

"Yes, the soul of the Earth itself. A truly powerful being. As I have said, in the distant past, the world itself used to teem with natural energy. However, that was when Gaia was awake. Now, she and most of the other Primordial Gods have entered a dormant state. And when that happened, the connection between her and the actual planet weakened, causing a weakening the quality and quantity of the natural energy present on the planet. And with urbanization, industrialization and the general destruction of nature by mankind, the natural energy in the human world has weakened to the point where even the supernaturally aware would not be able to sense it unless they already knew it was there to begin with. It is the same as when a Chain of Fate is heavily damaged. The soul slowly loses its connection to its physical body."

"That explains a lot…But, why does this realm have natural energy? It's not part of Earth, right?"

"Yes, that is correct. However, this realm, as well as many others, is connected to Gaia in their own way. That is why passageways between those realms and Earth, such as the Torii you passed through to enter this realm, and the Dangai that connects Soul Society to Earth, exist. Admittedly, because of the metaphysical distance between these realms and Gaia, the natural energy in them is not as great as it once was on Earth. In Soul Society and Hell, you could not sense any natural energy either, correct? That is because those realms, and most realms of the afterlife are metaphysically far enough from Gaia that the natural energy present in them is rather negligible, especially after Gaia fell into a dormant state. This realm, being metaphysically closer, has a larger concentration of natural energy. And having performed rituals to strengthen our connection to Gaia over many years, you will find much more natural energy here than you would on Earth these days." Yogarasu explained.

"Is there a point to having this much natural energy around?" Ichigo asked.

He didn't see the point of performing rituals to strengthen their connection to Gaia if they couldn't utilize natural energy in some way.

"Ah yes, I suppose you would not know about Senjutsu…"

"Senjutsu?"

"Yes. Senjutsu is a category of mystic arts, such as magic. However, it functions slightly differently. Magic energy, or reiryoku, as Shinigami call it, is not enough to utilize Senjutsu. Energy first has to be mixed and balanced with natural energy, in order to create Senjutsu Chakra, which allows Senjutsu to be used."

"Mixing your own energy with a foreign energy? Sounds dangerous."

Ichigo thought about the Hollowfication process, the act of trying to remove the boundary between Shinigami and Hollow, and how it had almost ended up turning both him and the other Vizards into bloodthirsty monsters.

It had been a horrible process, and if Kisuke hadn't been around, who knew what would have ended up happening?

"Yes, indeed, it is very dangerous. Though she is in a dormant state, Gaia can sense what humanity has done and is still doing to nature. Her hatred towards them has seeped into and melded with natural energy. So, when a Senjutsu user takes in natural energy, they are also taking in that malice. If they are not careful, they will be overwhelmed by it and turn into a beast without reasoning. If that were to happen, it would be truly calamitous."

The hatred of an immortal being that has existed for as long as the planet itself, huh?

He could definitely see how a mortal would be overwhelmed by something like that.

"Is it really that dangerous? If it's only one person, putting a stop to them should be a pretty simple task, right? And barring that, I don't like saying this, but I don't think killing them should be too difficult either."

"Pfft…Ichigo-chan, you don't understand how terrifying Senjutsu really is. Among all of the mystic arts in existence, Senjutsu is one of the hardest to master. However, conversely, a master of Senjutsu is unimaginably strong. The best of them can even directly manipulate time and space, you know? Even the most rudimentary application of Senjutsu is dangerous, since it can directly attack life force. Getting hit even once could cause catastrophic damage to your body. And the worst thing is that there's almost no way to defend against it other than avoiding getting hit." Serafall said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Thankfully, owing to the sheer difficulty of mastering the art, the number of Senjutsu users is quite low. It is an art that requires an inordinate amount of talent to master. If one does not possess sufficient talent, it does not matter how hard they work. It is unlikely they will ever master Senjutsu even if they were to train for their entire lifespan. Even if that lifespan is measured in hundreds, if not thousands of years. That is insurmountably arduous it is to master Senjutsu. If I am not mistaken, the number of beings who can actually use the art is less than 20."

"And one of them is here in the palace?"

"Yes, Yasaka-hime herself. Even among Youkai, she is one of the foremost Senjutsu masters of the world, as would be expected from a Kyuubi."

"Even among Youkai? Does that mean all Youkai can use Senjutsu"

"Rather than all of them being able to use Senjutsu, it is more accurate to say that most Youkai have a certain disposition towards Senjutsu. Some species, such as Nurikabe, have an even lower affinity for it than the average human, while other species, such as Kitsune, have such a high affinity for it that it comes naturally to them. And even among Kitsune, Yasaka-hime is considered a prodigy, having reached the level of a master in just a few decades."

"Okaa-sama is incredible!" Kunou said with a haughty smile, as though she were speaking of her own achievements rather than her mother's.

"Does that mean you can do it too?" Ichigo asked the little Kyuubi.

The smile shifted into a pout, and her vulpine features drooped.

Ichigo had pretty much gotten his answer from her reaction.

Yogarasu chuckled.

"Unfortunately, Yasaka-hime has forbidden Kunou-hime from training in Senjutsu until she has matured. Before one can even begin training, they must fulfill two prerequisites. The first is a large reserve of power. No matter how perfect one's control over natural energy is, if they do not possess great power of their own, they will only be able to produce a miniscule amount of Senjutsu Chakra, which will not be able to achieve anything. Fortunately, Kunou-hime, having been born a Kyuubi, already possesses a considerable amount of power on her own. The second prerequisite is a strong body. As you can see, that is quite obviously something that Kunou-hime is lacking."

Ichigo looked down at Kunou.

He could see Yogarasu's point. The little Kyuubi barely reached his waist in height.

"Senjutsu Chakra is a very potent energy, especially in large quantities. Without a powerful body to withstand it, one would be torn apart if they were to attempt to perform Senjutsu. As talented as Yasaka-hime is, even she did not begin her Senjutsu training until her body had fully matured at the age of 87."

"…87? It took 87 years for a Kyuubi's body to fully mature?"

"That is already very fast by Kitsune standards. Usually, a Kitsune's physical growth is heavily tied to the number of tails they possess. An Ichibi would remain a toddler for most of their first 100 years. A newly ascended Nibi would have the body of a child. Likewise, a Sanbi would have the body of a pubescent, a Yonbi would be a teenager who has just left puberty, and a Gobi would have the body of a young adult. In other words, for a Kitsune to reach physical maturity, they would have to live for a minimum of 4 centuries. Yasaka-hime, who was born with nine tails, underwent the same physical maturation in almost a fifth of that time span. Kunou-hime, who was likely born a Kyuubi, will likely experience the same."

"…Exactly how old are you right now?" Ichigo asked Kunou.

"Don't you know it's rude to ask a lady their age? But if you must know, I am currently 23 years old." Kunou answered in a slightly cross tone.

Ichigo's jaw almost dropped.

Kunou, who was barely half his height, was older than he was?

…Somehow, he didn't think he was as surprised as he should be.

Toshiro, who was supposedly almost 2 centuries old, still only had the body of a barely pubescent body.

He really should stop applying human standards to supernatural beings.

"Ah, we are here." Yogarasu said as he looked back to the front.

They had been walking in a straight line down a corridor for a while, and had stopped in front of a truly impressive golden double door.

It was currently closed, but Ichigo could feel reiatsu radiating from the other side.

The person on the other side of the door, presumably Yasaka, had enough reiatsu to match one of the elder Captains.

She was not the only one.

There were six more reiatsu signatures inside the room, each only slightly lower than the one that was presumably Yasaka's, and each having a unique texture.

Multiple species, he guessed.

"Yasaka-hime is waiting inside. Kunou-hime, please return to your room. This meeting is of the highest confidentiality. You are not permitted to enter. And you left in the middle of a lesson. Please return and finish it."

"No, I don't wanna! Those lessons are boring! I wanna see Okaa-sama!" Kunou immediately protested, throwing a fit right then and there.

Right outside the room where her mother was.

"Kunou-hime, your esteemed mother already intends to punish you for leaving the palace unattended. If you continue to throw a tantrum here, she will hear you. I am sure you are well aware of how much worse your punishment would be."

Kunou froze, her expression seizing up into one of abject terror, much like a child fearing the anger of their parents.

Her temper cooled rapidly, and she visibly drooped.

"…Understood. I'll go back to my room." Kunou muttered with a dejected expression, trudging off down the corridor to the left, leading to other parts of the palace.

"…I will receive retribution for that later." Yogarasu mused as he watched her leave.

Ichigo held back a snort.

Children could be vindictive, and if the lore about the trickster personality associated with Kitsune was true, Kunou would be twice as wrathful, not to mention a lot more creative.

Yogarasu turned back to the massive door and knocked on it.

A heavy sound reverberated loudly throughout the corridor as the metal was struck.

"Yasaka-hime, I have brought the guests."

"You may enter." A female voice that practically screamed regality answered from inside.

Yogarasu pushed the massive doors open, rather easily considering their size in comparison to his own.

A gust of wind billowed out from the room as the doors slid open, bringing with it a certain scent.

The fragrance of roses, chrysanthemum, lilies, and just about every flower Ichigo had ever come across, along with many other unfamiliar, yet pleasant smells, blended together in a heady, exotic mix.

The chamber beyond the door was extravagant in a way that even the rest of the palace could not compare.

It looked to possess about the third of the length of the corridor they had just walked through, but with almost 10 times the width.

The wooden flooring of the corridor cut off abruptly at the entrance to the chamber, where it was replaced by polished stone.

A line of elegant white marble extended from the entrance to the other end of the room, spanning the width of two average humans, surrounded on both sides by black marble, making up the flooring of the rest of the chamber.

Along the edges of the chamber, decorated pillars of smooth red wood jutted from the ground to hold up the ornate ceiling far above.

Near the far end of the chamber, six people, three men and three women, stood facing each other in two short files along the borders where the white marble met the black, reminding Ichigo of the positions the Captains of Gotei 13 took when having an official meeting in the Captain Commander's chambers.

Each of them was unique in their appearance.

The first man appeared to be middle-aged, possessing long straight black hair that fell just past his shoulder and piercing black eyes, wearing a purple kimono with a white collar.

It wasn't obvious what kind of Youkai he was, as he possessed too human of an appearance for Ichigo to be sure. His reiatsu sure didn't feel like any of the Youkai he had come across thus far.

The second was a red-skinned, bald and black-eyed elderly man who still possessed a healthy physique, wearing a black kimono, a sash with small pompoms attached to it, and a small black cap atop his head.

However, his most distinctive feature was doubtlessly his very long nose, which was a pretty damn obvious clue as to what species of Youkai he was.

That was the characteristic of the Tengu, the long-nosed goblins, who were considered either harbingers of conflict or guardians.

The third was also an elderly man, but unlike the other, he was rather portly in stature, like the statues of Hotei, one of the Seven Lucky Gods that Ichigo had seen a few times during his travels in Japan and other parts of Asia, which was meant to represent prosperity and wealth. He was bald, had large brown eyes, wore a brown kimono, and had a conical straw hat hanging behind him and a bottle of sake hanging slightly precariously from his obi.

Like the man before him, it was also fairly obvious as what Youkai he was, as long as one's knowledge of Youkai folklore was decent enough.

He was probably a Tanuki, a mischievous Youkai much like the Kitsune, though their reputation wasn't quite as bad as the more infamous species.

Standing opposite them, the first woman had long and straight ice blue hair, matching eyes, wearing a pure white kimono tied at the waist with a lavender sash.

Even if he couldn't see the thin layers of frost coating the floor around her, she was probably the easiest of the bunch when it came to guessing her species.

She looked way too similar to the manifested form of Sode no Shirayuki, Rukia's Zanpakuto, to be anything other than a Yuki Onna.

The second woman was harder to determine, having long wavy white hair and yellow slitted eyes, also wearing a white kimono like the first woman, though hers had detached sleeves and was more revealing compared to the Yuki Onna's conservative appearance.

He wasn't too sure what kind of Youkai she was, but judging by her eyes, he was going to go with either something feline or reptilian.

The last woman was an even bigger mystery. For all intents and purposes, she looked like a normal human, albeit one with beautiful features like the rest, with long brown hair and red eyes, wearing a crimson kimono.

Like the first man, he could not even begin to guess what she was.

The six of them were staring at the entrance of the chamber, or more specifically, they were staring at him, Sirzechs and Serafall.

Especially him, in fact. Their eyes only regarded the two Maou for a while before they fell on him and never wavered.

Ichigo met their gaze evenly, and after a few seconds, they broke eye contact first, seemingly satisfied with whatever it was they were looking for in his gaze.

Their eyes shifted as one to look to the other end of the chamber.

Ichigo's gaze followed suit, and froze.

At the far end of the chamber, a booth-like structure was erected atop a dais.

It was hexagonal in shape, supported by pillars of lacquered wood at each vertex, holding up an elaborately crafted roof made of various metals, with gleaming gold standing out the most.

Atop the roof, there appeared to be a massive golden flower-shaped structure.

The six sides, separated by the pillars, were covered by curtains of royal purple silk. All but the side directly facing the entrance.

The curtains were parted to reveal the inside of the booth, where a throne sat, ostentatious even when compared to the rest of the chamber.

However, compared to the person languishing regally atop it, it may as well have been a wooden stool.

She was a true work of art, possessing an ethereal beauty that humans could never hope to achieve naturally.

Long locks of cascading gold framed a perfect heart-shaped face with eyes of the same color, but with a greater, burning intensity to them.

Her lips were curled into an angelic yet bewitching smile, causing heat to rise to Ichigo's cheeks despite himself.

Her body was covered in a decorated ceremonial robe, like what Ichigo would expect members of the Japanese monarchy to wear in the past, but even with that present, it was quite clear that she had quite the voluptuous body.

Nine tails of pure gold were present behind her. Four swished lazily from side to side, while the remaining five lay still on the excess space on the throne.

Yogarasu had already said that the woman he had met a year ago in the ramen restaurant had been Yasaka.

However, just looking at the manifestation of regal sensuality before him, it was hard to believe they were the same person.

She must have been seriously suppressing her true appearance, and Ichigo could not blame her.

Guys would have been all over her the moment she stepped out into the human world if they even caught so much as a glimpse of her true beauty.

Ichigo had met a lot of beautiful woman.

Orihime had been one, though having known her since middle school, he hadn't really noticed until much later.

Yoruichi was obvious, as was Unohana Retsu.

Hell, even among his enemies, there had been pretty ladies.

And more recently, there was Serafall, if one were to overlook her childish stature, which was not her real appearance apparently, her mother, Sana, Grayfia, of course, and a number of female High-Class Devils he had met at the party the Sitri Clan had thrown for him in celebration of his promotion.

But, all of them were outclassed by the sight before him.

Yogarasu motioned for them to wait here and entered the chamber, striding between the six Youkai and approaching the royal figure on the throne.

He bowed deeply, almost a full 90 degree angle, before rising and speaking to her.

What about, Ichigo had no idea. He was speaking too softly for him to pick up from the other side of the chamber.

The alluring Kyuubi nodded and graced the Karasu Tengu with a smile.

"You have done well, Yogarasu. Remain here. Gyuki-dono, Kurama-dono, Tamaki-dono, Setsura-dono, Hakuja-dono, Shiranui-dono, let us continue our discussion on a later occasion. As you know, this meeting takes precedence over all else." The exquisite creature spoke in an impossibly melodious voice.

Ichigo felt a shiver run down his spine.

He recalled experiencing a similar feeling when he last saw her a year ago, but it was dwarfed compared to the tingling he was dealing with right now.

Yogarasu bowed to the radiant Kyuubi and stepped aside.

The other 6 Youkai did the same before filing out of the room.

The 3 Super Devils stepped aside, unblocking the entrance and allowing them to leave.

The 6 Youkai glanced at Ichigo on the way out, but did not do anything else.

The 3 of them stepped into the chamber, and the doors shut behind them.

"Welcome, Sirzechs Lucifer-dono, Serafall Leviathan-dono, and of course, Kurosaki Ichigo-dono. We welcome you to our humble abode." Yasaka greeted them.

Ichigo twitched.

This oversized building was 'humble'?

"Thank you for the invitation, Yasaka-hime. Will we be beginning the meeting now?"

"Unfortunately, not just yet. We still await one more guest."

One more guest?

Judging by the looks of confusion that had surfaced on the Maou's faces, they had no idea who she was talking about either.

Ichigo turned towards the door, expecting it to open any moment.

Instead, movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

He turned to find a part of the air in the side of the chamber distorting, swirling like a vortex.

A special distortion.

Then, the air split apart and a set of Shoji doors appeared in its place abruptly.

Ichigo's eyes widened.

He would recognize that anywhere.

It was a Senkaimon.

But, that was impossible.

Senkaimon were dimensional gateways that connected Soul Society to the human world.

It shouldn't be able to appear here in a different realm.

…Now that he looked at it carefully, it did appear to be a different color than the usual Senkaimon.

Rather than the usual light brown color of dried bamboo wood, the wooden frame was red in color.

The Shoji doors slid apart, releasing a cloud of smoke from inside that quickly cleared, revealing the white light that had been behind the doors.

Then, a single figure began to emerge from it, shadowed by the blinding light.

Only when he had stepped out of the light and the Senkaimon closed behind him was Ichigo able to get a good look.

Standing there was a familiar old man, completely bald, but with long eyebrows and an even longer beard, and a very prominent pair of perpendicular scars just above his right eye. He wore an oversized Shihakusho under a Captain's haori, with the left sleeve very noticeably flat, and a gnarled wooden cane in his right hand.

"Jii-san…!"

"It has been a long time, Kurosaki Ichigo. You look well. You two as well, Maou Lucifer and Maou Leviathan." Yamamoto Genryuusai Shigekuni, the venerable Captain Commander of Gotei 13, greeted the 3 Devils.

Sirzechs smiled genially at him, while Serafall grinned brightly and waved.

"It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Yamamoto-dono. We have heard many things about you. Not all of them were good, but enough to make a favorable impression." Sirzechs said warmly as he extended his left hand for a shake, which Yamamoto firmly grasped with his gnarled, only remaining hand.

"I am sorry to say that I cannot return the sentiment. By both design and the mandate of our monarch, Soul Society is completely isolated from the rest of the world beyond the borders of Japan. What I know of you is simply what Urahara Kisuke and Yasaka-hime have relayed to me."

"I see. Judging by your presence, can I safely conclude that you are the final guest Yasaka-hime was speaking of?"

"Yes, that is correct." Yasaka answered.

"It truly has been a long time since we last saw each other face to face, Yasaka-hime."

"Far too long, Yamamoto-dono. You should visit more often."

"Unfortunately, my duties do not afford me much personal time. Certainly not enough to lave Soul Society. Especially not after our latest debacle 4 years ago."

"Is that so…that is truly unfortunate. _She_ always expresses a desire to see you more often."

"If she wishes to see me, she can easily do so herself. There is no need for me to come here just for that."

"Hm. Well, let us leave it at that. _She_ must be growing impatient by now." Yasaka said with a smile as she rose from her throne and exited the booth and descended from the dais.

"Who is this 'she' you have been mentioning?" Sirzechs asked the question that was on the minds of the 3 Devils.

"Ah yes, we have yet to properly explain to you. When you requested that we allow you to use our territory for your meeting, we asked to meet Kurosaki Ichigo-dono in return. However, we were not the ones who came up with that idea. That would be _her_." Yasaka explained as she turned around and pointed up at the roof of the booth.

Ichigo followed the direction of her finger, and noticed that she was pointing at the flower-like ornament on top of the roof.

The completely ordinary looking ornament.

That is, until it started spouting white flames.

"Um...is it supposed to be doing that?" Ichigo asked.

Expectedly, no one answered him, because all of their attention was focused on the growing conflagration atop the booth, the pure white luminescence somehow enhancing the beauty of the construct.

That was when Ichigo realized that it wasn't an ornament.

It was a pyre.

The flames shot upwards, spreading unnaturally into a hollow circle.

In the space in the flames, a hazy image began to form.

At first, he couldn't even tell what it was supposed to be.

Then, the image began to clear up.

Ichigo froze once more as he finally realized what, or rather, who, was in the image.

It was a woman.

She possessed long, straight black hair, styled into what was known colloquially as a hime cut, decorated elegantly with a golden crown-like hair ornament.

Her eyes, sharp yet kind and motherly, were the same shade of molten gold as Yasaka's, but possessing a depth of infinite wisdom, shining even more brightly than the Kyuubi's, burning as intensely as the midday sun, draped by long, gently curled eyelashes.

She was dressed in robes far more ornate and beautiful than Yasaka's, if that was possible, complete with a thin white sash that shimmered with each movement, floating in the air in complete defiance of gravity.

Ichigo's mind almost completely shut down when she graced them with a small, almost unperceivable smile that magnified her beauty almost tenfold.

Her entire person appeared to be glowing.

He did not mean that in the way that she was beautiful, though she most certainly was, beyond what modern linguistics could hope to describe.

He literally meant that she appeared to be actually glowing, her body giving off some sort of golden radiance.

Which only served to further cement in his head that this woman, impossibly beautiful in ways not even Yasaka could match, could not be of mortal origins.

It was only when he managed to tear his eyes away from her that he noticed that both Yamamoto and Yasaka had gotten down on a knee each, bowing in reverence to the woman.

"You have done well, Yasaka."

An ephemeral sound that could not be adequately described as a voice echoed in the closed chamber and seemed to resonate with Ichigo's very being.

"We thank you for your kind praise, Amaterasu-sama."

" _What!?"_

Ichigo had a minor meltdown when he realized exactly who the woman was.

Amaterasu-Okami, the most important deity in Shintoism, the Shinto Goddess of the Sun and the Universe, and the Queen of Takamagahara, the land of the Shinto Gods.

It was not possible to live in Japan without hearing stories about her at least once, considering that Shintoism was the largest religion in the country by a huge margin, almost 50% more than Buddhism, Japan's second largest religion.

Naturally, being the largest religion in Japan, Ichigo had grown up, hearing story after story about the Shinto Gods.

The creation of Japan by Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto, the latter's death in childbirth and the former's failed attempt at bringing her back, leading to the animosity between them, the birth of the Shinto Trinity, Amaterasu-Okami, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto and Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the disappearance of the sun when Amaterasu went into hiding in Ama-no-Iwato when Susanoo heavily offended her and killed one of her attendants, and Susanoo's slaying of Yamata-no-Orochi.

To him, the Shinto Gods were more famous than even Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils, because for all of the influence of Christianity globally, it was still a comparatively small religion in Japan, only making up just over 2% of the population.

And Amaterasu was the most legendary of them all.

Said legendary figure was right in front of him.

…Well, technically, it was just an image.

But, if an image was already enough to elicit that much awe from him unconsciously, what would happen if they actually met face to face?

The image of the Head Goddess of the Shinto Pantheon shifted, her gaze moving to Yamamoto.

Her gaze softened, and became infinitely sorrowful even as her smile grew a fraction wider.

"…It has been a very long time since our last meeting, Shigekuni. It pleases me to see that you are doing well, but it pains me to see that you have aged so much. And that you have lived a truly hard life." Amaterasu spoke, her voice tinged with immeasurable grief.

"I wear my scars proudly. I prefer to think of them as a reminder of what I have protected, rather than of what I have lost." Yamamoto replied.

He didn't say it out loud, but pretty much everyone could tell that they were talking about his obviously missing left arm, lost in the battle with Aizen, rather than the numerous scars that Ichigo knew marred his torso.

"However…it pleases me to see you as well…Haha-ue."

Ichigo blinked once…and then again…and then a third time as he slowly process what Yamamoto had just said.

And then his jaw dropped.

Sirzechs and Serafall looked surprised, though not shocked to the same degree as Ichigo.

"You really should visit more often, my son. I do not get to see you nearly enough." Amaterasu spoke in a slightly more casual manner, her smile losing a bit of its sadness.

She was not refuting him in any way, which meant that Yamamoto was really…

"As I have explained to Yasaka-hime, I do not have the time for that. My duties…"

"You have served your duties for more than a millennium, Shigekuni. It is high time you select your successor and pass your duties to them."

"There is no one that is capable of replacing me yet. Of my two students, one is plagued by illness and the other lacks motivation. The other Captains…they either lack experience, or are simply incompatible with my station." Yamamoto immediately countered.

Even with most of his brain power still trying to process the relationship between Japan's most important God and the vaunted Captain Commander of Gotei 13, there was enough left over for him to acknowledge Yamamoto's point.

Ukitake was wracked by a terrible chronic illness that interfered with most of his daily life, forcing him to stay in bed most of the time and leave the work to his questionably capable 3rd Seats, and more recently, his newly appointed Lieutenant.

Kyoraku on the other hand just didn't seem fit for the post of Captain Commander. On ordinary days, he could be found lazing around Seireitei or Rukongai rather than sitting in his office and working like he was supposed to be.

He could be serious when the situation called for it, dangerously so, but the Captain Commander was required to be serious 24/7, if Yamamoto was any indication.

The other Captains…well, Gotei 13 would collapse in an instant if the likes of Kenpachi or Kurotsuchi became Captain Commander.

Toshiro was obviously too young. Even if one were to consider than he was over 200 years old, he was still the youngest of the Captains, and many, especially Aizen, had commented on his inexperience multiple times.

Ichigo personally thought that Byakuya was fit for the post, but in addition to his duties as a Captain, he was also the head of one of Soul Society's Four Noble Clans.

His schedule must already be as busy as Yamamoto's, and if he tried taking on any more duties, even he, calm and collected as he was, would snap under the pressure sooner or later.

Komamura was also someone who Ichigo could picture heading Gotei 13, but Yamamoto apparently considered him inexperienced.

Then again, all of the Captains seemed inexperienced compared to him.

Soifon was in a similar situation as Byakuya, being the Captain of the 2nd Division, the Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukido, and the head of a minor noble clan that was subordinate to the Shihoin Clan that Yoruichi once headed, and even if she wasn't, Ichigo privately thought that she was a bit too…obsessed with her own former Captain to be fit for the job.

Ichigo also heard from Kisuke, Rukia and Renji that Shinji, Rose and Kensei had returned to Gotei 13 to once again lead the Divisions they had once been in charge of before being exiled due to Aizen's machinations.

Not even Central 46 could leave 3 Captains' positions open, or hand them to incompetent Shinigami, especially after the Aizen fiasco, so not even they could argue with the Vizards' return, but he got the feeling that if any of them became Captain Commander, there would be a huge uproar that could degenerate into civil war.

There was the rather obvious choice of Unohana, who had been around as long as Yamamoto had if the rumors he heard were to be believed, but there was a reason she was called Soul Society's greatest healer.

As in, the gap between her abilities and that of her Lieutenant, the second best healer in Soul Society, was immense.

In normal situations, she and the rest of the 4th Division would be enough, but if a disaster on the same level as the Aizen incident were to occur, Gotei 13 was going to suffer heavily with their best healer performing other duties.

As Yamamoto had said, there was no one who could replace him.

But, more importantly…

"Yes, Kurosaki Ichigo-dono, it is exactly as you have heard. Yamamoto Shigekuni-dono is the son of our Sovereign, Amaterasu-sama." Yasaka said with a smile, apparently finding the obvious shock on his face amusing.

"I consider all mortals born in the land of Japan to be my children. Naturally, that includes you as well, Kurosaki Ichigo. However, Shigekuni is my flesh and blood son who I gave birth to." The Lady of the Sun added.

"The son of the head deity of the Shinto Pantheon is the Captain Commander of Gotei 13? Forgive me if my words seem impertinent, but why is Amaterasu-dono's son performing such…unglamorous duties? If you wished to do so, I'm sure you could easily obtain a high station in the Shinto Faction…"

"Ufufufu, it's only natural that Shigekuni is the Captain Commander of Soul Society. I gave birth to him for that very purpose."

"…I'm sorry?"

"Hm…to explain this, I will have to recount the early days of my reign. You are, of course, familiar with the story of my honored father, Izanagi-no-Mikoto, and his wife, Izanami-no-Mikoto?"

"Of course. Izanami-no-Mikoto was burned to death while giving birth to their youngest son, Hino-Kagutsuchi, and her soul descended into Yomi. Izanagi-no-Mikoto, mourning her death, ventured into Yomi to revive her, but after bearing witness to her decaying form, he fled in terror, sealing the entrance to Yomi with a boulder, preventing her from chasing him."

"Indeed. And in anger and indignation at her husband's betrayal, Izanami-no-Mikoto vowed to end the lives of 1000 Japanese every day. In return, my honored father vowed to create 1500 Japanese every day. That cycle would continue for many years, until Izanami-no-Mikoto realized that she would not be able to take revenge on her husband that way. Instead, she decided to curse his beloved Japanese a different way. She interfered with the soul cycle. Kurosaki Ichigo, do you remember how Japan's soul cycle functions?"

"When a soul's Chain of Fate is severed, they can no longer return to their body and are considered dead. Shinigami have to perform Konso on them for them to move onto either Soul Society or Hell depending on the sins they committed in life. If a soul is left in the living world for too long, their Chain of Fate deteriorates and undergoes encroachment, causing them to turn into a Hollow, which are purified and sent to Soul Society when killed by a Shinigami's Zanpakuto. When souls in Soul Society are killed or reach the end of their lifespan, they are reincarnated into the living world again, repeating the whole cycle."

"Indeed. However, Japan's soul cycle was not always the way it is today. Millennia ago, before the birth of the Martyr the world knows as Christ, the son of YHWH, Japan's soul cycle was no different from that of any other part of the world. Souls would enter the afterlife, which, depended on their beliefs and sins, immediately upon death, without a need for the external stimulus that is Konso."

"…In other words, it was Izanami-no-Mikoto who interfered with that soul cycle and turned it into what it is today?" Sirzechs inferred.

"Yes. She cursed Japan and prevented souls from moving onto the afterlife naturally. In other words, she is the one who is behind the creation of the creatures you know as Hollows."

Ichigo grimaced.

So, the reason why Hollows existed was because of the grudge between Japan's creators?

"You can imagine that it became quite a conundrum. Now, there are regular Shinigami patrols to exterminate Hollows and send their purified souls to Soul Society, but Shinigami did not exist in the beginning. Hollows began to overrun Japan, devouring humans and increasing in power, and ultimately causing the balance between the living world and the afterlife to break down. The situation deteriorated to the point where Soul Society and Japan were about to spill over into each other. Thus, we of Takamagahara decided to act. We struck down the Hollows with our divine powers, and created the new lynchpin that would stabilize the new soul cycle, the Soul King, a Divine Construct containing the powers of the Gods of Takamagahara, possessing enough power to negate the curse that Izanami-no-Mikoto had cast on Japan."

Ichigo's eyes widened as the identity of the enigmatic Soul King was finally revealed to him.

"A period of peace was established thereafter. However, it did not last long, for a certain incident occurred that would destroy the delicate balance of Japan's soul cycle once more."

"A certain incident?"

"Yes. The Soul King, the lynchpin we created to stabilize the new soul cycle, lost control of his power, causing the soul cycle to break down once more."

Ichigo shivered.

The Soul King, the great monarch of Soul Society who Aizen had sought to kill, lost control?

"Having been created from the powers of multiple Gods, three of whom were my brothers and I, the Soul King was immensely powerful, even if one were to take into consideration that he is a Divine Construct. That power grew too great for him to control. As such, in order to contain his power, we of Takamagahara were forced to remove a large portion of the power we had granted him, causing his limbs and heart to wither and fall away from the rest of his body, descending to various parts of Soul Society. And to prevent the Soul King's power from overflowing into the other realms, we created the dimension known as the Royal Realm and placed it far above Soul Society, placing the Soul King in the Greater Palace that overlooked all else, and sealing what remained of him within a barrier that stopped his power from leaking out." Amaterasu spoke sorrowfully, mourning what they had been forced to do to their own creation.

So, that was the truth of the Soul King.

As grandiose as his title and role were, he was essentially a puppet.

Ichigo personally felt that it was necessary to establish peace, but if Aizen, who possessed a monumental ego, had discovered that he was subservient to a glorified marionette…well, it was no wonder he had revolted.

"However, that act in itself would have dire consequences. With the Soul King's power diminished, Izanami-no-Mikoto's curse was able to take effect once more, preventing souls from moving on and causing the resurrection of the Hollows. As such, we were forced to find another granted blessings to 12 powerful souls in order to create the first generation of Shinigami, one of whom would go on to create the weapons that served as the very mark of the Shinigami, the Zanpakuto. And I created and gave birth to the man who would become the leader of the Shinigami and restore order to the living world and Soul Society, Yamamoto Shigekuni, my son."

Amaterasu spread her arms wide open, as though to embrace someone.

"Ah, if only you could have borne witness to his power! It was truly magnificent! No matter the strength of his opponent, a single swing of his Ryujin Jakka was enough to utterly immolate and turn them to less than ashes! The man whose very name struck fear into the hearts of his enemies! Someone whose power is on par with my own! That is my son, Yamamoto Shigekuni!" Amaterasu gushed proudly, sounding less like an almighty deity, and more like a bragging mother.

If Ichigo's mother were alive to do the same, he would doubtlessly be incredibly embarrassed, though secretly happy on the inside.

Yamamoto showed no such reaction, his expression as blank as it always was.

But, still to think the old man was once that strong…

In that case, couldn't he have defeated Aizen pretty easily?

"Hmph. That was a very long time ago, when I was still in my prime. I am no longer that man, simply an old, decrepit shadow of what I once was. With this withered body, I can barely produce a tenth of my original power even with my Bankai." Yamamoto snorted.

Ichigo understood.

Back when he had just obtained his Bankai, just a few minutes of use was enough for it to start snapping all of his bones due to his lack of control over its immense power, but eventually, he gained enough mastery over it for him to use its full power without consequence.

Yamamoto's problem was the opposite. His mastery over his power was absolute, but his body was no longer capable of withstanding his own absurd power. No matter how masterful his control was, if he went over a certain limit, which was apparently a tenth of his true power, his body would rapidly break down.

That explained a lot, like the current huge reiatsu discrepancy between a Super Devil like him and Yamamoto, despite the old man supposedly being able to match a head deity. He had to keep his power suppressed to prevent his body from being destroyed by it.

"Hm…In any case, with the advent of the organization that would eventually grow into Gotei 13, the Hollow situation was suppressed, their numbers heavily culled, forcing their retreat into the once empty realm you know as Hueco Mundo. The trapped souls the Shinigami call Pluses are routinely sent to Soul Society by Konso, and the new soul cycle finally stabilized." Amaterasu continued, not looking particularly pleased at her son's self-deprecating words.

"But, of course, another incident that placed the soul cycle in jeopardy occurred. Kurosaki Ichigo, you should be aware of what that is."

"…You mean the Quincies?"

"Indeed. The group of humans who had been granted the power to destroy souls. To be honest, they were not a problem at first. However, both their numbers and power grew too great, and their Hollow exterminating activities became far too numerous to ignore. Perhaps the intentions of the majority of them were pure, wishing to exterminate the monsters that hunted their fellow humans, but it did not change the fact that their actions were damaging the balance of the soul cycle. And the worst of them was their King."

"King?" Ichigo asked with a frown.

He had never heard Uryu mention anything about a King of Quincies

"Yes. The First, the King and the Progenitor of all Quincies. He named himself Yhwach. However, his true identity is that of the Soul King's power that had overflowed into the living world when he lost control, having subsumed the soul of a human infant whilst it was still in its mother's womb, and therefore becoming his own unique existence."

Ichigo cringed at the thought of someone like that running amok in the human world.

"He granted power to humans around him in order to ingratiate himself to them, making them his loyal subordinates. Thus, the first Quincies were born. Rumors of their power attracted more humans to them, allowing Yhwach to grow his initially small group of Quincies into a team, then a platoon, then a battalion, a legion, and finally, an army. As I said, perhaps the intentions of the majority were pure, but Yhwach's true goal lay elsewhere, something he shared only with his inner circle. His true goal was to break into the Soul King's Palace and subsume his original self. In other words, his goal was to become the new Soul King."

In other words, a megalomaniac much like Aizen.

"…I assume by your use of past tense that he did not succeed?"

"Of course not. The Shinigami met the Quincies in combat, and decimated their numbers, with Shigekuni personally defeating Yhwach."

"Note the use of the word 'defeat' rather than 'kill'." Yamamoto added, sounding slightly grouchy now.

"You didn't kill him?"

"I could not. Despite my best efforts, he was too difficult to wound. It was only with my Bankai that I was able to inflict a fatal wound on him, forcing him to retreat and go into hiding. Assuming he somehow survived that wound and recovered, he should still be heavily crippled."

An Aizen-ish megalomaniac who could push Yamamoto in his prime into using his Bankai didn't sound like someone Ichigo wanted to cross paths with.

At least not until he was capable of controlling his new power.

Then again, he was apparently either dead or badly crippled, so the chances of that happening were extremely low.

…So, what was with the alarms ringing in his head? The sinking feeling in his gut? The premonition of impending disaster every time the Quincy King was mentioned?

"Ahem. We appear to have gone off topic. Amaterasu-sama, was there not a reason you requested for Kurosaki Ichigo-dono to be here?" Yasaka cleared her throat, trying to get the meeting back on track.

They had gone off on quite the tangent.

"Ah yes, of course. Kurosaki Ichigo." Amaterasu straightened her back, schooling her facial features into an expression of cool indifference, projecting an aura of regal elegance, reminding Ichigo that despite her earlier motherly antics, she was still very much an ancient head deity that had been around for far, far longer than any other being he had met thus far.

Which was why it was slightly disconcerting when said Goddess bowed her head deeply to him.

That was usually supposed to go the other way around.

"For saving our land from its greatest crisis to date, we of Takamagahara thank you." Amaterasu expressed her gratitude in a solemn voice.

"T-There's really no need for that…"

Ichigo became flustered, a somewhat rare occurrence for him outside of encounters with women with voluptuous bodies, and a worrying lack of both shame and a concern for personal space.

A certain former Captain and a certain busty Lieutenant came to mind.

Amaterasu rose from a bow and smiled radiantly at him, pride emanating from her.

"It pleases me to know that a child of Japan has grown so powerful. Which only makes the Devils' theft far worse." Amaterasu said as her smile turned into a cold frown and her gaze turned towards the Maou, who gazed back evenly.

"I'm sure you are already aware, Lady Amaterasu, that if we had not acted when we did, _Ichigo-chan's soul would have been consumed by Hell itself_. I hardly think that we deserve such a cold reception for saving him." Serafall said, her usual cheerfulness and bubbly tone replaced by a terrifyingly blank expression and a neutral voice.

Amaterasu sighed, grief coloring every contour of her majestic features.

"I am aware of that. It simply pains a mother to know that one of her children has left the nest and taken flight."

Amaterasu's molten gold eyes fell back unto Ichigo, and the Reincarnated Super Devil felt his gut twist painfully when he saw the clear heartbreak in her gaze.

He felt the urge to comfort her rapidly rise within him, but could not find the appropriate words.

His breath caught in his throat as Amaterasu graced him with a sad smile.

"However, know this, Kurosaki Ichigo. Though you may have left our side, our blessing shall remain with you. You will always be welcome within our land. Japan shall, now and forever, be your home." The Lady of the Sun declared, her golden orbs watering slightly.

And despite himself, he could feel his own doing the same.

A warm feeling enveloped him, very much like the hugs his mother would constantly give him when she was alive, that he would crave after her death.

He was absolutely certain now.

This was home.

More than Soul Society, more than Karakura, more than his own house had been for a very long time, and even more than the Underworld had been the past few months.

Ichigo could loudly declare this right here and now.

He was home.

* * *

And I'm done.

Sorry this chapter took so long. It was partly because I got addicted to Bloodborne, which I had gotten with my PS4, but never got around to playing until recently.

The other reason was because of another Bleach/DxD story on this site: Do Me A Wrong by ChaosEmperorNex.

Don't get me wrong, that story is truly fantastic, and I truly enjoy reading it.

The problem is that a lot of the author's ideas are very similar to mine, and I struggled to keep my own story different from his/hers.

I write because I enjoy it, so criticism doesn't bother me.

However, one of the few things I don't take kindly to is people accusing me of plagiarism.

So, again, sorry I took this long, but it's done.

Quite a number of characters have been introduced in this chapter, mainly the Kyoto Youkai and Amaterasu.

Don't think that I introduced them for no good reason.

The Shinto Faction will play an important role in the second book, where the bulk of the story takes place, an incident different from the one in canon.

Man, I really hope no one else manages to come up with the same idea until I get around to writing it.

That's all for now. As always, please read and review.


	5. Life 4: Uncertainties

Past

Ichigo took in the scenery around him.

Just a gander would tell anyone that he wasn't in Japan at the moment.

For one, he appeared to be the only Japanese around.

And then there were the rather iconic ruins he was looking at.

Ichigo was in Greece.

More specifically, he was in the capital, Athens.

Even more specifically, he was atop the Acropolis of Athens, surveying the famous Parthenon.

He had departed from Japan two days ago to begin a tour of Europe and Asia, and his first stop was right here in Greece.

For a first time tourist in Greece, it was a given to visit Athens, and by extension, the Acropolis, which was basically the icon of the country.

He had to admit, it was a pretty impressive sight, especially if one were to consider the level of technology available back when it was constructed.

It was too bad it was in ruins from invasions, fire and who knows what else the ancient temple had been exposed to over the centuries.

It was under repairs, modern architects trying to restore its former glory, but it didn't look remotely close to completion.

He could only imagine what a sight it must have made for when it was still pristine.

"Yes, it was impressive indeed. Truly a testament to the ingenuity of men. Or perhaps their hubris?"

Ichigo turned around.

He blinked at the sight of a well-built older gentleman, dressed completely in black.

Which was pretty weird, considering the midday sun was looming overhead without a cloud in sight.

Wasn't he burning up in that outfit?

He blinked again when he realized that the old man had spoken to him in perfect Japanese.

Again, weird.

Nothing about him seemed remotely Japanese.

He blinked for a third time when he noticed that they suddenly appeared to be the only two people around.

Okay, that went way out of the realm of 'weird' and straight into the realm of 'what the hell?'

And was the air suddenly darker, and colder?

The strange old man did not seem to pay that any mind and directed a powerful gaze towards the Parthenon.

Ichigo found himself following that gaze.

"It is called a temple, but it never truly was such. Its true nature is that of a symbol of the Ancient Athenians' hubris and greed, and even more than that, the site of much conflict and bloodshed. Desecrations and occupations by other religions, invasions by Persians, wars between states, internal strife. Perhaps Troy is the better known battlefield, but the Parthenon has seen its fair share of death as well. Blood has seeped into the earth of this so-called 'hallowed ground', so much that it is a wonder that the grass is not red even now, centuries after." The old man spoke, a strange passion in his voice.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

"You speak as though you were there yourself." He cautiously noted.

The old man paused and looked at him, an unreadable light in his eyes that made Ichigo steadily more and more nervous.

He wondered if he should be making a break for it right about now.

Then, the old man smiled.

The act sent chills down his spine.

"Of course not. That would be ridiculous, not to mention _humanely_ impossible." The old man laughed.

Ichigo did not fail to notice the odd emphasis on the word 'humanely'.

The old man turned on his heels and began to walk away.

"My brothers and I welcome you to our humble abode. Please enjoy yourself and take comfort in knowing that no harm will come to you within our borders, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Ichigo's eyes widened to the size of dinner plate and he whirled on the spot.

The old man was gone, not a trace of him anywhere.

The tourists who had mysteriously vanished had just as mysteriously reappeared, milling about the famous icon as though they had never left.

The surroundings suddenly became brighter and warmer.

Despite that, the sweat that had formed on Ichigo's brow was very, very cold.

Though no further incidents like that occurred, the memory of the old man continued to haunt him until he left Greece for Scandinavia three weeks later.

He hoped that he wouldn't have another weird encounter.

His silent plea would go unheeded.

* * *

Present

Ichigo walked through the familiar streets of Karakura Town at the crack of dawn.

He was very, very thankful that no one was awake to see him.

He was not mentally prepared for his return just yet.

The only reason he had come was because Kisuke had contacted him and said he needed to see him urgently.

His immense reiatsu, having returned when he became a Devil, was being suppressed by the seals Serafall and Ajuka had placed all over his body.

They were a temporary measure, one that had been thought up on the fly and made in about the same amount of time.

His sheer power would burn right through them in a few scant hours, maybe not even two, which was hopefully enough time for him to get done with whatever business Kisuke had with him and not attract any attention.

Soon, he found himself in front of the rundown traditional sweets shop that was the source of both fond and painful memories.

He took a deep breath to calm his wildly beating heart, and pushed the sliding door open.

"Sorry, we're not open for business yet…Oh, Kurosaki-dono. It is good to see you in good health."

Ichigo felt a sense of nostalgia at the sight of Tsukabishi Tessai, the former Captain of Soul Society's Kido Corps, now Urahara Shoten's retail associate, organizing the shop's rather limited inventory before rising to greet him.

"Tessai-san, it's been a while. How have you been?"

"Well, as you can see. It has been a rather mundane year for us. Though, the owner has informed us it has just been the opposite for you."

"Speaking of, is Kisuke in?"

A bit of an unnecessary question.

Ichigo could sense Kisuke's reiatsu at the back of the shop, along with Tessai in front of him, and Ururu and Jinta in the floor above, presumably still asleep.

He didn't sense Yoruichi's reiatsu, which he supposed was to be expected. She was a wanderer, spending more time out than in the shop.

"The owner's waiting for you in the backroom. I trust you remember where it is?"

"I don't think I could forget even if I wanted to." Ichigo said as he moved towards the back of the small establishment.

If he had stayed a bit longer, he might have noticed the look of concern in Tessai's eyes, hidden behind his thick glasses.

Passing a familiar corridor, Ichigo stopped outside the room where he sensed Kisuke's reiatsu.

"Yo, Kisuke. What was so important that you had to call me at this ungodly-"

Ichigo began to ask as he slid the door open, but froze when he saw the other occupant in the room aside from the former Captain of the 12th Division.

His heart had been wildly beating just a minute ago.

Right now, it had pretty much stopped.

His father, Kurosaki Isshin, in his Gigai, looking up at him from his sitting position on the floor, pride and sorrow warring in his eyes.

Ichigo almost tore like hell out of there.

"Hey Ichigo. Long time no see. You look like you're doing well." Isshin said with an uneasy smile.

"I-I…didn't sense your reiatsu…"

Ichigo winced internally at the unintended implication that he wouldn't have come if he knew Isshin would be here.

He did not miss the hurt that flashed in Isshin's eyes momentarily.

"I apologize for the deception, Kurosaki-san, but I knew that you wouldn't come anywhere close if you sensed your father's reiatsu, so I gave him something to suppress it. Isshin-san has something to tell you, and it's something you _need_ to hear." Kisuke said firmly as he rose to his feet and made to exit the room.

"I'll give you two some privacy."

Ichigo wanted to scream for him to stay behind, but no sound would come from his throat.

Kisuke closed the door behind him, leaving the two Kurosaki males in the room.

A spike of reiatsu told him that Kisuke had probably used some sort of Kido to form a barrier around the room, either to ensure their privacy, or prevent him from escaping.

An awkward silence filled the room, neither of them not really knowing how to even start breaking it.

This had to be the first time they ever had a conversation like this.

Usually, things would start with Isshin pulling some stupid shit, followed by Ichigo retaliating, resulting in an argument before resolving itself.

Or in the years following Aizen's defeat and Ichigo's loss of his powers, Isshin avoiding him whenever he even looked like he was going to start asking questions.

This was the first time Isshin was this calm _and_ wanted to talk, and Ichigo just didn't know what to do.

Thus, it was rather unsurprising when Isshin was the one who broke the silence.

"Ichigo…I'm sorry!" Isshin declared as he bowed deeply in the dogeza position, stunning Ichigo completely.

"I was a fool! I one-sidedly believed I knew what was best for you and interfered in your life without asking for your opinion! In the end, I only succeeded in driving you away! I cannot apologize enough for what I did! I deserve your anger and your hatred!"

Ichigo had no idea what to say.

Even now, a year after he left Karakura behind, he still felt white hot anger when he thought about how his father had basically screwed up all of his interpersonal relationships with his friends.

But, for all of his faults, Isshin did all of that with Ichigo's best interests at heart, regardless of how misguided he was.

Ichigo was most definitely pissed at Isshin, but…he didn't hate him.

They were still father and son after all.

"…Dad."

Isshin looked up, just in time to see Ichigo's face rapidly filling his field of vision.

Then, he felt a sharp pain in his forehead as the impact sent him sprawling to the floor.

Much like how Isshin had headbutted him back during the battle with Aizen.

"There. With that, we're even. So get back up."

Isshin, still looking dazed, either from confusion or from the headbutt he had received, did as Ichigo said and rose from the floor.

Ichigo sighed.

"I'm definitely pissed at you. But, I get what it was you were trying to do, even if you were a complete dumbass about it. That's why, I'm going to forgive you."

Then, he scowled.

"But seriously, pull shit like that again and I'll kick your ass back to Soul Society."

Isshin blinked, processing his words.

He smiled.

"…Your mother would be so proud of you if she could see you now."

Ichigo cracked a small smile at that too.

"And she probably would kick your ass if she knew how much of a dumbass you were."

Isshin winced.

"Yeah, she probably would."

"…Dad, I'm not ready to come home just yet. You're one thing, but…my friends…and Karin and Yuzu…I just need a bit more time…" Ichigo said hesitantly.

His father may have been the source of his troubles, but some of the fault also lay with the others for even listening to him in the first place.

"I know. Take as much time as you need. But, at least come to your sisters' graduation. Their high school graduation, if not middle school. You don't have to talk to them, just be there to watch."

"Yeah, wouldn't miss that for the world."

Another awkward silence soon fell over the room.

"…So, a Devil, huh? How's that working out?"

Ichigo blinked, but guessed that Kisuke must have filled him in at some point.

"Not all that different from being a Shinigami, actually. Though, I guess I do have a boss that I actually need to answer to now. And that I'm basically the equivalent of a Captain and a noble."

"The paperwork must be a pain in the ass. I should know."

"Pfft, bull. Toshiro and Rangiku-san told me you used to foist the work off on them before taking off to nap somewhere."

"Crap, they still remember that, huh?"

"That, and a whole lot more."

"Heh."

This…had to be the most normal conversation he ever had with his father.

It was…pleasant, he supposed.

He wished it could have continued for a while longer.

He had a lot to tell Isshin.

But it was at that moment that his seals chose to start breaking down.

"Crap, my seals are wearing off. I have to go soon, or my reiatsu is going to flare like a beacon."

A look of disappointment crossed Isshin's face.

Ichigo felt the same way.

Regardless of how short it was, they might have just bonded more closely in that moment as father and son than they had in the past 19 years.

"Before you go, there's one more thing I need to tell you. The truth of your birth that I've been hiding from you all this time. The truth you deserve to hear."

Ichigo straightened.

He had been waiting for a long time to hear this.

"I guess I have to start with how your mother and I met. It was when I was still a Captain, and she was still in high school…"

* * *

Ichigo was tired.

He was lying under a willow tree in the courtyard of Serafall's estate.

Technically, he had his own land now, in addition to the land that he had received as a member of Serafall's peerage, but it was a fairly empty piece of space with no actual living quarters yet, so he was bunking at his King's manor until he could get a developer who wasn't terrified of not being able to meet his standards to actually do something.

Reconciling with his father and hearing the truth about his birth had eased the internal burden he felt for a long time, but…he was just so tired now.

The revelation that his mother was a Quincy, and that Yhwach had been the one who had indirectly killed her by stealing her powers at the same moment she was about to fight Grand Fisher had not helped to improve his mood either.

How was he supposed to reconcile the fact that in his veins flowed the 'blood' of the man who killed his mother?

"You alright there, Ichigo-chan?"

He looked to find Serafall kneeling over him, a concerned expression on her face.

"Yeah…Just not feeling so hot right now."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

He seriously doubted that just talking about it would make him feel better.

"Hm…alright then."

Serafall's knees hit the ground right next to him, and she patted her lap.

"Come on. I'll give you a lap pillow until you fall asleep."

"…Does that really work?"

"It worked for me when I was a child."

"…I don't get a say in this, do I?"

"No, not particularly."

Ichigo sighed, but complied.

Despite the size difference, he was sure that Serafall was strong enough to not be bothered at all by the weight.

And…it was comfortable, more than he cared to admit.

It was a rather…novel experience.

He couldn't remember the last time someone did this for him, if it ever happened.

If anyone had, it would be his mother, and that was unfortunately too far in the past for him to recall with certainty.

He felt Serafall's small, soft hands running through his hair.

"…Did you know, Ichigo-chan? Back when the civil war started, none of the 4 of us had any desire to join in. We had enough of fighting during the Great War already. We were not interested joining another war, not even one that was being fought for the future of our race, nor did we covet any prestige, much less the thrones of our fallen rulers. Whether the incompetents of the Old Maou Faction or the rebels of the New Maou Faction won, we didn't have any interest."

He hadn't known.

Any recount he could find on the civil war simply sang praises of the valor of the current Maou, how they had singlehandedly turned the tides of the war in their favor, beginning with the defeat of the 5th Super Devil, the son of the original Morningstar, Rizevim Livan Lucifer, and secured the future and prosperity of their race.

"…What changed?"

"…We were tired of it. Friends and family falling victim to the horrors of the war day after day. Each of the 72 Pillars…in the days before the civil war, each of them easily had more than 100 members, in spite of the low pregnancy rate among Devils. We're a very promiscuous species after all." She joked lightly.

"Then, war came, and soon, the 72 Pillars became the 33 Pillars, with 39 of them meeting their end in the war. And the remaining 33 did not remain unscathed either. Prosperous clans of more than 100 members were soon reduced to just over a dozen. Two, if they were luckier. Friends, cousins, uncles, aunts, nephew, nieces…we were tired of sending them off to war one day and never see them return alive."

Serafall's hands began to tremble.

"For me…the last straw came…when my older sister did not come home one day."

Ichigo's eyes shot open.

Serafall had an older sister?

"Her name was Serene Sitri. She was not born with the same absurd power that I was, but for what she lacked in strength, she more than made up for in intelligence, wisdom, beauty, grace and gentleness. Far more so than I could ever hope to achieve. She was so incredible that my father willingly yielded the title of heir to her. Even when my old bastard of a grandfather, the then head of the clan, stripped her of her hard-won title as heiress and gave it to me, seeking to keep my power in the Sitri, she never begrudged me even once. She congratulated me, encouraged me and inspired me. To me, my sister was the perfect Devil that all should strive to emulate. Who was I compared to her? I was just the freak with 12 wings and far more power than I should ever be allowed to wield at my fingertips, the one who had stolen what was rightfully hers."

He could feel wetness dripping into his hair, and he knew she was crying.

"My sister…was very concerned with the future of our race in the aftermath of the Great War. Unlike me, who had zero interest outside of my immediate family. She helped to rally the 72 Pillars into rebelling against the fools who were trying to doom us. Every day, she marched onto the battlefield for our sakes. Every day, she watched less and less of her comrades come home alive. And every day, she became more and more rundown. Even then, she did not revile me for choosing to abstain from the war."

Her fists tightened in his hair to a painful degree, but Ichigo paid that no mind.

"That last time I saw her…was when her body was returned to the Sitri estate in pieces."

Serafall's voice hitched.

"…Rizevim Livan Lucifer himself had ambushed her. Serene was basically the pillar of the rebel army at the time. Killing her destroyed any remaining morale they had left. They were about to be overrun. It was a similar story for the other 3 too. For Sirzechs-chan, it was a beloved aunt. For Ajuka-chan, his cousin. For Falbium-chan, his mother. We realized far too late. If we wanted to protect the ones we loved, we had to fight and secure the future for them. And so the 4 of us finally stepped off the sidelines and joined the war. Less than a week later, Rizevim had fled the Underworld with his closest supporters out of fear for his life, and the Old Maou Faction had been all but annihilated."

"We were celebrated, exalted, revered. But the only thing the four of us ever felt was regret. The civil war had already been going on for more than a year at that point. If we had joined in sooner, how many lives could we have saved? How many loved ones would we not have lost? Ascending the thrones of the Yondai Maou was the last thing on our minds. But, we had to. In order to guide our race to a prosperous future. So that the deaths of our loved ones would not be in vain. And that, that is the real story behind the civil war. A story of 4 fools, countless loved ones lost to war, and a race deserving far better leaders than the ones they got."

His hair was completely drenched at that point, and literally about to be wrenched out of his skull, but Ichigo only had eyes for Serafall, who was now smiling sadly, her face stained with tear streaks.

"I know what it's like to lose someone you love. I know what it's like to utterly despise the one who killed her. And I know what it's like to blame yourself for their death. So, if you ever change your mind, don't be afraid to tell me. I'll listen to you any time. I'm your King after all." She spoke gently, which was a far cry from her usual bubbly self.

Ichigo made up his mind.

She had opened her heart to him.

How could he not do the same?

And maybe, just maybe…by doing so, both of them could finally start to heal.

"…Well, to start off, my father and I finally made up, so that's a thing…"

* * *

Ichigo opened his eyes to find himself adrift in a void.

"Back here again, huh?"

"Indeed, young one. There is much for us to talk about after all."

The void congregated and formed into a familiar man.

"Do we really have to do this every time you want to talk?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I have no other means of reaching out to you."

"…Are you dead, by any chance?"

"That would depend very much on what your definition of 'dead' is. If you are speaking in the physical sense, yes, I am dead. My vessel which you see before you no longer exists in the physical plane. In other words, I am no longer capable of interacting with your world. I am only able to speak to you like this because this is the domain of the Dream. However, if you are speaking in the metaphysical sense, then no. I am very much alive. If I were well and truly gone, all of existence would feel the repercussions of that event."

Ichigo felt the blood draining from his face when the Original Devil casually implied the end of existence.

"In that case…are you trapped?"

"In a manner of speaking. I am capable of leaving my prison of sorts if I wish, but doing so would ensure the destruction of all of existence as surely as my true death would."

"…You know, for someone who's talking about potentially cataclysmic events, you're being awfully apathetic about it."

"It is nothing to concern yourself with at the moment. And if I have any say in it, you never will."

"Okay, so if that isn't why you're contacting me, what is?"

"I am here but for one purpose. To ensure that you are aware of the role you play now that you possess my powers."

That _totally_ did not sound ominous in the slightest.

"Hm…to begin, I suppose I must first tell you of my true nature. Tell me, what do you know of balance of the world?"

"Other than it's seen better days? Not much, to be honest."

"Hm…well, I suppose outside of the Progenitors, few would know the truth of the balance. All things in this world have a counterpart, an equal and a complete opposite. Sometimes, they do not exist in a pair, but in a trinity. What keeps them equal, stops them from overpowering the other, is the Great Balance. The two sides of the balance are composed of the most basic concepts of existence itself: Creation and Destruction. Those two almighty domains were split between the Progenitors, the original beings who brought about this world. Chaos, Amenominakanushi, Ginnugagap, they possess pieces of both domains. Brahma and Shiva took pieces of Creation and Destruction respectively, and to help maintain the balance between them, Vishnu took the concept of Preservation. However, the ones who held the greatest pieces of Creation and Destruction were YHWH and I. In other words, YHWH and I were largely the ones who maintained the Great Balance."

"I see…so that's why the balance basically went to shit when the Biblical God died…"

"No, that's not all there is to that story. Tell me, Kurosaki Ichigo, what happens when one side of a balanced is massively reduced?"

"Huh? Well, obviously, the scale would tip completely to the other side…Wait."

"It seems that you have realized. You are correct. If one side was suddenly reduced by a great amount, the balance would completely collapse. In other words, all things in existence would meet its end. However, the balance is still in place. It is tattered, weakened, but there it remains. Why is that? Quite simple. YHWH and I 'died' at about the same time. The simultaneous events weakened the balance, but not destroy it."

"…You just told me that you were metaphysically alive, if physically dead. Does that mean that YHWH is also…?"

"Correct. Much like my own, YHWH's vessel has died, perished in the climax of the Great War. However, metaphysically, he is very much alive. In fact, he is with me, in my prison. And much like me, he can leave, but he will not, in order to ensure that dark tidings do not visit your world."

"But…if both of you are alive, why is the balance so crappy? I can't imagine that the destruction of your vessels was enough to weaken the balance to this extent."

Satan sighed.

"Perceptive…very well, you deserve to know, I suppose. Kurosaki Ichigo, what you possess is only a part of my power. Quite a substantial amount, over 10%, but still a fragment of a whole, nonetheless. The reason you are so strong now, that you now possess power equal to mine, or perhaps even surpassing me at my peak, is because your own sheer power is augmenting that fragment. That is the reason I chose you to inherit my power. You wondered why I did not simply choose another Devil to take my place. That is why. I needed someone strong. Leaving the megalomaniac that my dear friend Lucifer is unfortunate enough to call his spawn aside, any of the current Yondai Maou could have done the part, and indeed, I did try to bestow my power unto them, but they were simply incompatible. Even in your case, I was not sure that you would be compatible until I had actually tried."

"So, the reason the balance is weakened is because only 10% of your power is present in the world? What happened to the rest of it?"

"As I said, it is nothing to concern yourself with. Just know that the majority of my power is being used to keep danger at bay, as is YHWH's. Getting back to your role, I wish for you to take my place."

"I'm sorry?"

"Right now, you are still raw, but time is something you will have plenty of now that you have inherited my power. I expect YHWH will soon choose an heir for his power as well. When you two have reached your full potential, it is our hope that you will be able to take our place as the ones who maintain the balance of the world. Restore it to what it once was."

"Are…Are you serious?"

"Of course. Did you think I gave you my power just for kicks?"

Ichigo was going to ask for more details, which he _obviously_ needed, but that kaleidoscopic void around them began to break down at that moment.

"It appears that our time is up for this occasion. I do not know when I will have the leisure to make contact again, but be assured that it will happen. For now, I must bid you farewell."

Before Ichigo could say anything, Satan began to fade from view, as did the void around them, and he felt himself slipping from this 'dream'.

But before it faded completely, he could have sworn he caught sight of something.

Something very big and very red.

* * *

Ichigo had to say that it was a rather strange experience to still be flying on a plane when he now possessed the ability to pretty much teleport anywhere he wanted.

He had said as much to Serafall, who quickly warned him to _never_ try doing so outside of Japan without authorization.

Teleporting into the territories of other Factions without consent or even forewarning was a big no-no, which could easily become the impetus for another war.

Japan was the exception since Amaterasu had pretty much proclaimed the Land of the Rising Sun to be his home.

Though, he had to say, even if it wasn't the fastest method available, it was pretty comfortable.

Especially since he was flying first class.

"So, tell me what the progenitor of our species told you again?" Serafall asked for the fifth time since he woke up.

"You know, you keep asking, but it's not like my answer's going to change."

"Sorry, it's just…well, it's unbelievable to say the least."

"Yeah, you're just hearing this secondhand. Imagine how I felt when he told me himself."

Being told that he was expected to take the place of the Father of Devils was pretty damn jarring.

He spent most of the time between waking up and now trying not to freak the fuck out.

He understood why restoring and maintaining the Great Balance was so important, but why did the role have to fall to him of all people?

If he fucked up, all of existence would suffer for it.

So yeah, no pressure there.

He sighed.

At least, judging by Satan's words, the need to restore the balance was not so great that it needed to be done immediately.

Maybe by the time when he was needed, he would actually be ready to take on that role.

"Look, let's just…leave that aside for now. Where are we going again?"

"Greece. More specifically, Mount Olympus."

"…You mean the actual mountain, or the one the Greco-Roman Gods reside on?"

"Both, actually. They're essentially in the same place. We're having an audience with the Olympians."

"That's a…pretty big leap, going from one Goddess to an entire Pantheon."

"It'll be fine. The Greco-Romans are one of the few Factions that are actually pro-peace. As long as you don't…I don't know, blow up one of their temples, there won't be a problem. I figured you should start with one of the easier Factions to negotiate with before we amp up the difficulty."

"Thoughtful of you." Ichigo said only half-sarcastically.

"I know. Just to preface, I said that the Greco-Romans for pro-peace, but I meant that as a whole. Individually, there are a few you should watch for. The first is Ares, the God of War. I…think I don't have to explain why."

"Yeah, I could already tell."

Peace must be anathema to a God of War, especially one as reportedly belligerent as Ares.

"Try to avoid him outside of official meetings if you can. He will look for literally any excuse to start a fight with you. But, if a confrontation is unavoidable…well, feel free to kick his ass. The rest of the Olympians won't mind. Most of them will probably even thank you for it."

So much for internal solidarity.

"Just so I'll know, what does he look like?"

"Oh, trust me. The moment you see him, you'll know it's him. Anyway, the second Olympian you should watch out for is Aphrodite."

"The Goddess of Love? I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to name her among the Olympians."

"She's called the Goddess of Love, but…well, to put it bluntly, she's a huge slut. She will do her utmost best to sleep with any men, or women, she doesn't really discriminate, she finds even remotely passable in her eyes, even resorting to force to do so. I can't even begin to recount how many wars she almost started because of _who_ she slept with. Don't underestimate her just because none of her domains have anything to do with combat. She's still a direct spawn of a Primordial God and has the power to prove it. Again, avoid her completely outside of meetings, but if a confrontation is inevitable, turn her down as _politely as you can_. I cannot stress this enough."

"…Is she that dangerous?"

"Even Zeus is wary of her, if that tells you anything."

Well, that about settled it. If the head of her own Pantheon thought she was dangerous, then there was no doubt.

"And the third?"

"Well, he's not an Olympian in name, but he is one of the most important Gods. Hades, the Lord of the Dead."

Ichigo blinked.

That was actually the one Greek God he wasn't expecting.

"Really? I would have thought that Hades of all Gods would get along well with Devils."

"You'd certainly think so, wouldn't you? Hades is the Lord of the Dead, the Devils deal with the souls of sinners. Hades lives in the Realm of the Dead, we Devils live in the Underworld. But no. In addition to the fact that he's kind of as ass, Hades does not get along with Devils. In fact, Hades hates Devils. And the rest of the Biblical Faction too, for that matter."

"Why?"

"No one knows, actually. If you were to ask Hades, he would just say it's because the Realm of the Dead was located right beneath the Underworld, and that we're too noisy."

Ichigo's expression could be summed up succinctly in one short sentence.

"…Are you shitting me?"

"It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Of course, that can't be the truth, but Hades will not say anything else on the matter. Oh, but don't think ill of him. Despite all of that, Hades really is one of the friendliest Gods around. Even if you were to look at all of the Greek myths in existence, among all of the major Gods of the Greco-Roman Pantheon, Hades is probably the one who has committed the least atrocities. As the Lord of the Dead who judges the souls of special cases impartially, he actually gets along very well with humans. Better than the Olympians, even."

A God who liked humans and hated Devils and Fallen Angels…

Was it because traditionally, Devils and Fallen Angels were beings who tempted humans to sin?

Or was it for another reason entirely?

"So, those 3 are all I have to watch out for?"

"Hm…well, those 3 are just the ones you have to be most wary of among the Greco-Roman Gods, but it's not like the others aren't dangerous either. Apollo is eccentric and a shameless flirt, but apart from that, he's relatively harmless. His twin sister, Artemis, hates most males, but she's also smart enough to know that she shouldn't do anything that could lead to a war. Athena is extremely prideful, but she knows how to place Olympus's interests in front of her pride. Hermes…is basically a kleptomaniac on a permanent high, so keep a tight grip on your valuables while around him. Hephaestus is just cranky. Don't say anything about his disfigurement, and you won't get on his bad side. Dionysus…well, he's almost always drunk, so you should be fine. But, on the rare occasions that he is sober, do not offend him. He may be better known as the God of Wine, but he's also the God of Madness. Demeter is pretty friendly, no need to worry about her. The same goes for Hera, unless of course, Zeus recently had a fling with a mortal woman again, in which case, stay out of her way. She can hold a hell of a grudge. And finally, Zeus and Poseidon…well, they, along with Hades, are the face of Olympus, but they're really just perverted old men. Half the reason I stay in this childlike form is to ward off advances from Gods like them."

"That's one hell of a circus."

With so many conflicting personalities, how had they not driven themselves into the ground by now?

"Despite all of those idiosyncrasies, Olympus has managed to remain one of the strongest Factions in the world. I guess it's what you would call 'functioning chaos'. However, for all of their eccentricities, you should always remember this. All of the myths are true. The rape of Hera by her own brother and husband, Zeus. The rape of Medusa by Poseidon and subsequent cursing by Athena. The slaughter of prideful Niobe's children by Apollo and Artemis. Every atrocity you have ever heard of. All of them really happened. They may have become more…civilized in modern times, and Zeus truly does wish for peace with other Factions, but just keep in mind that a leopard can't so easily change its spots."

"And…we're going to negotiate with them."

"Yes. However, heinous they may truly be, we would rather be at peace than at war with them. In addition to multiple High Gods, there are also three Head Gods, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. And what's more, Hades is one of the World's Top 10 Strongest."

"Wait, the God that hates our guts is one of the World's Top 10?"

"That's right. Hades hates us, but it's not like he would do anything that could start a war between us without provocation. The reason I cautioned you about him is his power. It's on par with any of the current Yondai Maou. If we offended him enough that he would declare war on us, it would be a disaster. Even we Maou wouldn't stand a chance without our full power. Just keep this in mind, Ichigo-chan. Among the 3 Gods I warned you about, it's Hades you need to be most wary of."

"Right. Don't piss off the guy who lives below us. Anything else I should know before we get there? Like how to _not_ piss them off?"

"Hm…well, just don't bring any of the myths you heard and you should be fine. They hate being reminded of past failings, mistakes and near losses. Especially Typhon. _Do not ever mention Typhon_ , even in passing."

"They hate the King of Monsters that much?"

"They don't just hate him. They _fear_ him. His mere appearance inspires so much terror that almost all of the Olympians fled at the sight of him, to say nothing of his absurd power. Typhon did swat Zeus of the sky like a fly. He's also a member of the World's Top 10 Strongest. Almost at the top of the list, in fact, only right below Ophis and Shiva in power, and matched only by Fenrir, the Norse God-Slaying Wolf of equal infamy and strength. The only real reason he stays under Mount Edna is because he likes it there. If he wanted, he could break out at any time and destroy Olympus, and probably a good part of the world."

"Right. Don't mention the monster that could singlehandedly wipe out most of the world. Got it. Anything else?"

"No, that's pretty much it. We should be landing in Macedonia soon. From there, we'll be escorted to Mount Olympus. Remember…"

"Yeah, I know. Best behavior. You know, I'm pretty sure I'm the one who's supposed to be saying that to you. You do have a track record of doing stupid things."

"Hey! I'm the Maou in charge of foreign diplomacy! At the very least, I can act the part while on the job!" Serafall protested with a pout.

"You're kinda proving my point there…"

* * *

Even with all the crap Ichigo had been through in his time as a Substitute Shinigami and his still brief tenure as a Devil, the supernatural world still found plenty of ways to surprise him.

Like right now.

He had to admit, riding in a carriage being pulled by pegasi was a completely alien experience for him.

It wasn't anywhere near as uncomfortable as Ichigo had expected from what he had thought to essentially be a glorified horse-drawn carriage.

It wasn't as luxurious as a flight in first-class, but it was a lot more pleasant considering the sheer volume of air that the pegasi and carriage must be pushing through, judging by how fast they were currently soaring over the cities below, flying up towards Mount Olympus, the physical mountain, where the gate to realm of the Greco-Roman Gods was located.

It came with being magical horses, he supposed.

The carriage rumbled violently for a moment, causing him to almost lurch forward unceremoniously.

Thankfully, he managed to regain his balance before he smashed his face into the opposite seat.

"Are you okay, Archduke Kurosaki?" A female voice that was not Serafall's asked, sounding in equal parts amused and concerned.

He looked at the third occupant in the carriage.

Their escort to Mount Olympus.

A petite woman with braided brown hair and brown eyes, dressed in a white toga.

Serafall had introduced her as Eirene, the Greek Goddess of Peace, which he supposed was fitting, considering their purpose for this meeting.

Compared to some of the supernatural women he had met thus far, she was rather plain.

In fact, if she didn't possess the feel of divinity around her, Ichigo probably would have mistaken her for some reenactor of Ancient Greek times.

Boy, would that have been an embarrassing mistake to make.

Still, there was a certain…tranquility around her that appealed to him in a way.

From the moment she had met them from the airport, she had been nothing but polite, which gave her points in his book.

Now, if only she would stop addressing him by that stupid noble title he had received along with his Evil Pieces and land space when he was promoted.

"I'm fine, and you don't have to call me that, you know."

"Nonsense. You are an honored guest in our lands. I must address you by your proper title." She responded easily with a radiant smile that made it hard to argue with her.

"Anyway, what you felt just now was our carriage passing through the dimensional walls between the human world and Olympus. There is still a ways to go, so I humbly ask for your patience. In the meantime…"

Eirene said as she extended a table from the side of the carriage, brought out an ornate horn and blew into the mouthpiece.

Instead of sound, copious amounts of food and beverages shot out of the other end and landed perfectly on the table.

"…Would you care for some refreshments?"

Ichigo stared blankly at the food on the table, and then at the little horn that had basically just told the laws of conservation of mass to suck it.

Was that a cornucopia?

He had seen Serafall create endless amounts of ice from seemingly nothing, but it was only now that he could truly appreciate just how _little_ the supernatural world cared for the laws of physics.

While he was gawking, Serafall and Eirene had already begun to dig in with gusto.

He had to admit, circumvention of laws of physics aside, the food did look and smell good.

"…Thank you for the meal."

The carriage pulled up and the 3 passengers disembarked.

While Eirene and Serafall continued on without much reaction, Ichigo had to stop and stare at the legendary Olympus for a moment.

It…well, the best way he could describe it was an Ancient Greek version of Seireitei built on a mountain.

The carriage had stopped at a dock of sorts just outside of the actual citadel, connected to a long winding path that traveled up the mountain, several branching paths splitting off through the various districts of the massive realm, and the main path ending at two concentric circular walls surrounding a giant fine marble palace at the very top.

It was…actually, it looked almost exactly like what he had expected, though obviously a lot bigger and more detailed.

And even more stunning than its magnificence was the sheer reiatsu coming from it.

Seriously, if it was translated to visual information, Olympus would be lit up as bright as the sun right now.

That was _a lot_ of reiatsu.

Eirene led them along the main path, past several gawking individuals with varying levels of divinity.

She pointed out the districts of Olympus, each under the dominion of one or more of the Olympians.

The agricultural district governed by and split equally between Demeter and Dionysus, spanning several hectares of land.

The squabbling market district with Hermes at its helm, bustling from the moment it opened in the morning to the time it closed up shop at night.

The art district run by Apollo, where melodious music could be heard almost 24/7, the genre of music changing depending on the time of day.

The hunting district led by Artemis, where a direct path to the bountiful woodlands at the base of the mythical mountain lay.

Ares's combat district, the main attraction of which was the coliseum in which dozens of battles were conducted every day.

Aphrodite's…red light district, for comforts of the flesh.

Athena's scholar district, where Olympus's educational institutions were located.

Hephaestus's industrial district, where it was always hot and reeking of smoldering metal because of the dozens of forges, blown up to great proportions to accommodate the Cyclops, the primary blacksmiths of the Gods aside from the God of the Forge himself.

Poseidon's port district, which was really just a portal leading to the Sea God's own domain in the oceans.

The residential district run by Hestia, a former Olympian who had ceded her position to Dionysus, where the non-divine residents resided.

Hades's gambling district, which was also partially run by Hermes, and supplied by the riches over which the God of the Dead also held dominion.

And finally, the royal district run by both Zeus and Hera, split into the larger outer circle, where the temples of the Minor Gods resided, and the smaller inner circle where the main temples of the 12 Olympians, Hestia and Hades, as well as the grand palace, were located.

Which was also where they were headed right now for their meeting with the Olympians.

They soon reached the heavily guarded inner walls that separated the royal district from the rest of Olympus.

Ichigo found himself being reminded of Central 46's chambers in the middle of Seireitei, similarly guarded and separated from the rest of the citadel.

Though, he supposed the main difference was that the ones inside of these particular walls _weren't_ a bunch of useless, corrupt, decrepit old farts.

Eirene spoke with the guards, who opened the gates, allowing them access into the outer circle of Olympus's biggest district.

Ichigo did not fail to notice how they were staring at him the entire time, much like everyone else on the way here.

They made their way through the outer circle, which looked as luxurious as Yasaka's estate in the Realm of the Youkai.

Travelling in a straight line, they reached the even more heavily guardedwalls that separated the inner circle from the outer circle.

"Oh, dear sister, what brings you to the inner circle today?"

A humongous specimen of a man, almost twice Ichigo's size, with bronze skin, black hair and black eyes, wearing sparse Ancient Greek armor, asked as they approached.

"Ah, Heracles, it's good to see you. I am here to escort our guests to a meeting with the Olympians."

Ichigo stared at the man he now realized was the most famous hero in Greek mythology.

Heracles, better known as Hercules, the demigod son of Zeus who had completed the infamous Twelve Labors among other incredible feats, but was ultimately killed through Hera's machinations, leading to his ascent to godhood.

"Ah, yes, Father did mention that emissaries from the Devils would be arriving today. Which means that these two must be Maou Serafall Leviathan and…"

Heracles's powerful gaze focused on him.

"…You must be the illustrious Kurosaki Ichigo. You…are shorter than I imagined."

Ichigo blinked, completely nonplussed.

That was…a new one.

"Heracles, don't be rude. They are our guests."

"Oh, I didn't mean that in a derogatory way. I was simply surprised that someone who was strong enough to shake all of Olympus with the force of his power from beyond the dimensional wall was only the size of an ordinary man. Guess that really goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover."

"Thanks, I guess." Ichigo muttered, not sure if he was being complemented, insulted or both.

"Anyway, the Olympians have been expecting you. Please, do go in."

With a single massive hand that could probably wrap itself easily around Ichigo's entire head, Heracles pushed open the gargantuan gates with so much force, they swung all the way back and slammed into the frame, shaking the whole structure.

Assuming they were made of the same material, the same gates that served as the entrance to the outer circle had required dozens of guards to slowly push open.

Heracles had just accomplished the same feat by himself in about a tenth of a second.

With one hand.

Though, perhaps, as a testament to the sheer control he had over his immense physical strength, neither the gates nor the walls had so much as a scratch on them.

Either that or the gates were specially constructed to withstand abuse from the strongest demigod.

Ichigo had the distinct feeling that it was the latter.

Eirene smiled daintily at her half-brother and led the two Super Devils into the inner circle.

If the outer circle was comparable to Yasaka's estate in luxury, the inner circle surpassed even that.

Ichigo could truly believe that this was the abode of some of the famous Gods in existence.

In terms of pure design and decoration, the inner circle was not much different compared to the outer circle.

However, the entire place was filled with an incredible radiance that enhanced its beauty to an unbelievable degree.

It was so bright that Ichigo thought he was going to be blinded for a moment before his eyes began to adjust themselves to the luminance.

And when they did, he caught sight of a distinct figure waiting at the top of the long stairway that led up to the grand palace, surrounded by the 14 temples of the Olympians, Hestia and Hades.

As they ascended the stair, a well-built elderly man slightly taller than Ichigo, with electric blue eyes, shoulder length white hair and a full beard, dressed in a white toga, stepped forward to greet them.

"Welcome to Olympus, Maou Serafall Leviathan and Archduke Kurosaki Ichigo. We are most pleased to have you here."

"The pleasure is ours, Lord Zeus." Serafall said as they bowed to the Head God of the Greco-Roman Pantheon out of deference in their home.

The Lord of the Aether grinned widely and gestured for them to enter the massive building behind them.

"Shall we begin this meeting then?"

"Yes, let's."

The three of them moved into the grand palace.

* * *

Ichigo was starting to get used to the stares, though he admitted it was slightly unnerving that they were coming from almost all of the Gods of one of the most powerful Factions in the world.

The meeting had taken a while, which was weird, because Ichigo did not think they had managed to do much since both sides, in spite of mutually seeking peace, also needed to uphold an image of strength and not give away too much to the other side for fear of appearing weak to third parties.

In the Greco-Romans' defense, their influence was already diminishing in the mortal world since long ago thanks to the spread of the Christianity, so he supposed they didn't really have much left to give.

By the time it had adjourned, with next to no results other than the continued agreement to not meddle in each other's affairs, he might add, damn politics, it was already way after dusk and heavily storming in Greece, which had caused the cancellation of any flights.

Not really an issue for those capable of travelling halfway across the planet with a single spell, but Zeus had courteously invited them to stay the night on Olympus.

And for the sake of bilateral relations that didn't seem to be going anywhere, they couldn't quite refuse.

Which was why Ichigo was attending yet another party.

He supposed it was made slightly better by the fact that he wasn't forced to wear another damn tuxedo and that this wasn't one of the ritzy, 'everyone has a ten foot pole up their asses' parties, but rather, one of the wild, 'everybody gets shitfaced and turn into dumbasses' parties.

That would explain all the flying clothes and drunken yells.

He had to admit, after the perfect picture of elegance that was Amaterasu, he had no idea what to expect of the Greco-Roman Gods, but it certainly wasn't the God of the Sky drunkenly singing shanties with Poseidon, who looked almost identical to Zeus with the exception of darker hair and sea green eyes, at the top of their lungs while being cheered on by their equally drunk sons/nephews.

To their credit, the Goddesses were nowhere near as belligerent, or at least better at hiding their drunken state, and looked on at the antics of their boorish male counterparts with disdain.

Especially Hera, a tall, beautiful woman with brown hair tied in a braid and black eyes, who looked like she was about to start throttling her brother-husband, regardless of the damage that would do to her own image.

Though, a number of them were looking at him with a strange light in their eyes that did not inspire good feelings in him.

Serafall was on the other side of the hall, desperately fending off advances by drunk and persistent Gods who did not seem turned off by her childish body as politely as she could.

Ichigo was about to go and run interference when she directed a pleading look towards him, but stopped when someone suddenly appeared at his side without him noticing beforehand.

And judging by the sudden look of shock that had frozen on Serafall's face, he could guess who it was.

"Not enjoying the festivities, Kurosaki Ichigo?"

Ichigo started at the vaguely familiar voice and turned to face…

…A walking, talking skeleton in black robes.

It was so surreal that Ichigo couldn't help it.

He just stared.

The skeleton's lower jaw clattered noisily against the rest of the skull as it cackled.

"Something on my face? Or perhaps you will only recognize me in this form?"

Before he could even blink, the skeleton was replaced by a familiar elderly gentleman dressed in all black, smiling cunningly at him.

"You…you're the old man from back then."

"Indeed. I do not believe we have ever been formally introduced. Pleased to meet you, Kurosaki Ichigo. I am Hades."

The God of the Dead greeted him as he transformed back into his skeletal form.

Ichigo swallowed nervously.

This was Hades, chthonic ruler of the Realm of the Dead, oldest of the Greco-Roman Trinity and of the Titans Kronos's and Rhea's children, a God so powerful that he was capable of ranking in the World's Top 10 Strongest.

Ichigo tried to think of a verbal response that wouldn't potentially mortally offend him and spark a bloody war between the forces of Olympus and the denizens of the Underworld.

"Kakaka…why so nervous, Kurosaki Ichigo? Do I seem that intimidating to the man who singlehandedly saved the world?"

"No, nothing of the sort, Lord Hades. My King has simply informed that you…do not take kindly to our race."

"Hmph…she did, did she? Well, let us go outside and have a talk for a moment, shall we? No need to be so apprehensive. I have no doubt that if I were to harm a hair on your head, your King would unleash the full scope of her boreal wrath on Olympus, and I really could not be bothered to clean up the resulting mess."

Ichigo briefly wondered if Hades was aware that he had implied that he would still emerge the victor even if Serafall were to use her full power before dismissing the thought.

There was no doubt that he did.

And Ichigo couldn't tell if he was bluffing or not.

The depths of the God of the Dead's power were as unfathomable as the Yondai Maou.

He couldn't even begin to describe just how massive it really was beneath the surface.

It was greater than either Zeus or Poseidon, though perhaps not both together.

But considering that the reiatsu of the Lord of the Aether and the King of the Abyss individually eclipsed even Aizen's, it was still a terrifying thought.

Discretion was the better part of valor, which was why Ichigo decided to forgo any notion to decline and followed Hades out onto the balcony, away from the clamor.

Night had long fallen over Olympus, bringing with it a tranquility that was only disturbed by the sheer rambunctiousness of the Greco-Roman Gods' party.

"Tell me, Kurosaki Ichigo. Do you know what Satan's role in the grand scheme of things was?" Hades abruptly asked him when they were far out enough on the balcony to not be overheard.

"…You mean his place on the Great Balance?"

Hades showed what was _probably_ supposed to be an expression of mild surprise on his skeletal face.

"Ho, so you know about that…how odd. When I questioned the current Yondai Maou, none of them appeared to be aware…Tell me, how did you come across that vital piece of information?"

Ichigo realized that he might have just made a mistake in revealing what he knew.

What the hell was he supposed to say now?

'Oh, I know about it because Satan is talking to me in my dreams'?

There were only two possible outcomes resulting from that.

Either Hades would think he was being mocked and get offended, which might escalate into a war, or he would believe him, and that information would eventually get out into the open and send the rest of the world into a panic, which might also escalate into a war, one of a larger scale.

Caught between a rock and a hard place.

Surprisingly, it was Hades himself who offered him a way out of that conundrum.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. What does matter is that you are aware. Kurosaki Ichigo, what we speak of from here on is not for the ears of others. Do you understand?" Hades spoke in a tone that implied that he was not so much making a request as he was ordering him.

Still, Ichigo nodded, genuinely curious about what the Lord of the Dead wanted to talk about.

"You say that I do not take kindly to your race…yes, that is indeed true. Your King must have also informed you of the reasons I have always told others when asked."

"You…don't like the ruckus we make in the Underworld."

"Well, that is not false. I really do not appreciate the racket you lot always make upstairs. However, that alone would only irritate me. It certainly would not be reason enough for the disdain I feel towards you Devils. Are you aware of the tales surrounding your fabled forefather?"

"Which one? How he shaped Hell into what it is today?"

"That is not so much of a legend as it is a fact, and no, not that one in particular. I speak of the legend that none of the residents of Hell outside of Devils were able to gain a foothold in the infernal realm until after his disappearance."

"Well, yeah, that's almost as famous as the one I mentioned."

"That one is untrue, a falsehood that has been spread by you Devils, though I supposed you cannot be held accountable for the most part. Few know what truly happened, and those who are not dead are largely the remnants of the first generation of Devils, encouraging that falsehood out of mere hubris."

"So…Satan couldn't have stopped you from getting your own territories in Hell?"

"Oh, no. That part is very much based in fact. Satan was one of the most powerful beings in existence. Matched in sheer power only by YHWH, surpassed only by the Ultimate Two and possibly the God of Destruction. If he really did not wish for us to gain a foothold in Hell, none of us would have succeeded until after he was long gone. In truth, Satan gave us those territories voluntarily when we negotiated with him."

Wait, what?

"They say I get along very well with humans, and for the most part, that is true. However, if there is one thing I detest about them, it is how they portray YHWH as an absolute force of good and Satan as an absolute force of evil. That has never been the case. YHWH is not good by nature, nor is Satan evil. They are after all two sides of the same coin. They were very much like each other. Especially in the regard of how they were very deeply concerned of the Great Balance and how they never sought anything but true peace. That was why Satan willingly yielded portions of Hell to me and the other Gods of the Infernal Realm, and perhaps also why they expected mankind's portrayal of them as two extremes. Their single flaw was their overindulgence of their followers' desires. The only reason they allowed that Great War of yours to break out was because the animosity between their subordinates had grown too great, and they could not bear to refuse them. But aside from that single flaw, they were truly beings that one could call perfect, that all others should strive to emulate. Out of all beings in existence, there are none I respect more than Satan and YHWH."

The mood then visibly became sour as Hades's voice grew increasingly bitter.

"And now, the former is gone, and the latter has fallen mysteriously silent. What is left of the once proud and respectable Biblical Faction? Devils and Angels…poor imitations, relying on the power and renown of their forefathers to protect their overinflated ego. Humans, misguided in their beliefs and manipulated by vile creatures to do their bidding. And the worst of you all are the Fallen Angels, abominable beings whose very existence is the proff of their perversion of YHWH's and Satan's will. What else could I feel for them but contempt?"

Ichigo was stunned at the revelations he had borne witness to.

Hades's hatred of them…certainly made sense now.

"And then you came along."

Hades turned to look at him.

"A boy who acquired power that could rival some of the strongest beings in the world, the same boy who would then inherit Satan's powers. You interest me, Kurosaki Ichigo. You truly do. Is your appearance a sign of good things to come, or impending disaster? I look forward to seeing the answer." The God of the Dead mused, seeming truly delighted.

"Well then, our discussion is at an end. I trust you will keep this a secret?"

Ichigo nodded.

This was way too personal for him to tell anyone else about.

"Good lad. You should return to that mess my brothers are making. I think you will find that there is no party quite like an Olympian party."

* * *

Serafall stared at her Queen with a complicated expression.

She couldn't begin to describe how worried she had been when he had been led away from the party venue by the God of the Dead.

She was about to follow after them, but the look Hades had momentarily directed at her made it clear that he would not tolerate any third party interference.

Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have given a shit what the old bag of bones was demanding, but it was a different story with Ichigo here.

Ichigo as he was currently was powerful. Extremely so, to the point where even Grayfia, one of the Underworld's strongest Ultimate-Class Devils, was rendered completely helpless.

However, he could only use a portion of his true power, the bulk of it sealed and kept on a short leash by Serafall herself.

He could effectively make use of the limited power he had, but it still couldn't match the full might of one of the World's Top 10 Strongest.

In other words, if Hades was serious about killing him, Ichigo would die.

Serafall could stop that by either removing the seal on his power or jumping in herself, but…the latter course of action would lead to a complete breakdown of negotiations between the Underworld and Olympus, and she couldn't let that happen for the sake of her own selfishness.

As for the former, she didn't even want to imagine what would happen if Satan's powers on top of Ichigo's own went berserk.

So, she had no choice but to wait, and hope that Hades wasn't insane enough to try and kill a foreign diplomat in their own territory.

There were no words that could adequately state how relieved she was when Ichigo and Hades returned without a scratch on either of their persons.

And then various Greek Goddesses started to flirt with her Queen.

She had noticed a number of them staring at him before, but none of them had made a move up until now.

As she looked at her extremely flustered Queen, she felt a certain squeezing sensation in her chest that she couldn't quite explain.

"You look rather forlorn, Maou Leviathan." A sultry voice called out to her.

Serafall expertly hid her disgust and turned to face a voluptuous woman with blonde hair and green eyes, dressed in a white toga that barely covered up her unmentionables.

"Good evening to you, Lady Aphrodite." Serafall returned the Greco-Roman Goddess of Love's greeting with a curtsy.

"I apologize, but I could not help but notice your emotional dilemma. Might I hazard a guess that it has something to do with your adorable new pet?" Aphrodite commented with a growing smile.

Serafall did not think that she had allowed anything to surface on her face, but Aphrodite, being a Goddess heavily tied to emotions, could apparently see something that no one else could.

"Oh, don't worry your pretty little head. I won't lay a hand on him. Zeus forced me to swear an oath on the Styx, that old codger." Aphrodite said with a momentarily displeased look.

Despite that knowledge, Serafall did not feel any better about letting her anywhere near Ichigo.

The Olympians were notorious for finding ways around the oaths they made on the River of Hatred, or just ignoring them completely, uncaring of the consequences that so frequently befell others instead of themselves.

"Getting back to you, do you understand what that clenching feeling in your chest is when you look at your boy toy being flirted with by other women? Indulge me."

Serafall did not like the increasingly predatory look on Aphrodite's face.

But, if she were to consider her words, and her own unpleasant feelings, then the logical conclusion was that the emotion she was experiencing right now was…

Serafall turned pale.

Aphrodite's smile threatened to split her perfect face.

"Yes, my dear Serafall. What you are feeling right now is _jealousy_."

"I apologize for my bluntness, but you are wrong, Lady Aphrodite."

"Am I? Tell me, my dear Serafall, don't you just want to destroy those harlots for daring to go near your Queen? Don't you want to monopolize his affections? Don't you want to feel his fervent gaze upon you and only you, to whisper sweet nothings into your ears, to fulfill your every need, and to know that he is completely yours?"

With every salacious, honeyed and increasingly passionate word that spewed out of the Goddess of Love's mouth and into her ears, Serafall felt her heart aching more and more uneasily, and that unpleasant feeling growing.

"Oops, I shouldn't say any more than this. I wouldn't want to incur your wrath. Farewell then, Maou Leviathan. May you enjoy the rest of the festivities."

And with that, Aphrodite departed, the clear victor of their verbal spar.

"I would, but you just ruined it for me, you bitch." Serafall muttered under her breath, trying to soothe her aching chest.

She turned back to look at Ichigo uncertainly.

Aphrodite was wrong.

She couldn't possibly be feeling jealous.

She had not known him personally for very long, and on top of that, he was barely even a tenth of her age, a mere child in the eyes of many.

She couldn't possibly be holding any feelings for him…

…Right?

* * *

And this chapter is done, just in time for Christmas!

I should probably have mentioned this from the start, but there is unlikely to be much action in this first part of the story, as its main purpose is to establish Ichigo's place in the supernatural world and his relationship with Serafall in preparation for the second part.

I have no experience in writing romance, so bear with me.

I do have most of this part already planned out, all the way to the epilogue and bridge to the second part.

I won't say much other than it ties up loose ends on the Bleach side.

Also, yes, I redeemed Isshin.

He's a bad father, but he's definitely not the worst I have ever seen in anime or in real life. Not even close.

That's all for now.

As always, please read and review.


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